The tribal art auctionhouse starts its 30-year anniversary on March 1, 2008 with an expressionistic looking caryatides stool, that will spark attention to ambitious collectors of classic modernism as well.
The figure comes from the Holoholo, a small ethnic group in the middle region of Lake Tanganyika, of which only very few sculptures are secured. Attributed is the "master of slit eyes," whose most famous objects are stored in museums (limit 40,000 €).
Their origin lies in the late 19th Century and came in the collection of the colonial governor Secretary Max Wentzel in Tabora (Tanzania) after German expedition Rwanda 1893/94. Since 1909, it is owned by the german family and will now attain the art market for the first time.

Among the Dan objects there is a deangle mask on the top rung. Its complete form belongs to the classics of African art, that in the 1920s were collected particularly in France (limt € 33,000). The mask once belonged to Jean-Paul Delcourt, french trader and collector, who lives in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, since the late 1940s.

Some 600 works of art will be on the block, including a large selection from the South Seas and Papua New Guinea. Among the curiosities there are three very different, old and completely preserved skull cult: from the Asmat (limit € 7,800) from Papua New Guinea and from the Dayak (limit € 5,200) and Apo-Kayan (limit € 2,000) from Borneo, Indonesia.

The second part is to be allotted to the silent auction for literature of non-european art - about 500 books will be auctioned.