PARIS, FRANCE.- This Spring in Paris Sotheby’s will sell a remarkable collection assembled by a man whose life has been punctuated with passions for different civilizations. In the mid-1950s he took a trip to the then Belgian Congo and immediately fell in love with Africa. His business in import-export led him to live in Africa for a full year, returning to Central Africa regularly thereafter. His encounter with Africa was the turning point in the nature of his art collecting. Until his trip to Africa collecting interest had been for art and objects of the Middle-Ages. He had made a collection of European works of art and furniture, as well as important scientific instruments. A passionate man with impeccable taste, he gave up European art and radically turned to African sculpture.
His travels throughout Africa enabled him to buy remarkable pieces that were chosen for their aesthetic appeal. Back in Europe he continued to buy and one of his closest friends and great adviser in his early years of collecting was the dealer Jef Van der Straeten. An extremely private character, he sequestered his newfound discoveries in his office, sharing them with only a few close friends and acquaintances. This secret garden was revealed to his family when he moved the contents to their new house in 1960.
Ten years later, he rebuilt his home in a minimal and elegant style, adding a new wing designed to offset his growing art collection against the backdrop of his magnificent garden. The natural light and lush outdoors formed a perfect setting for the rich variety of figures and eclectic objects composed of European 16th and 17th Century furniture and works of art, scientific instruments, and African and Oceanic art.
In 1980, he made his first trip to Mexico. He was impressed by the architecture, art and culture of Mesoamerica in the same way as he had been by African art. Captured by the same passion, he returned several times to Mexico and Guatemala and purchased a number of pieces on visits to New York.
Until his death last year at the age of 75, this discreet collector often invited a small circle of friends, specialists and scholars to his home for elaborate dinners where they discussed and admired the diverse works of art. The enthusiasm that he quietly shared for these fine objects stimulated a number of his friends to follow in his footsteps and start their own collections. It was his wish to have his collection dispersed at auction so that others may continue to cherish and care for them. For his children, the sale in Paris will pay tribute to the private and talented collector their father was.
The collection- The sale includes selections of African, Oceanic, Pre-Columbian art, two Khmer sculptures, European works of art, furniture and silver (about 170 lots)
African and Oceanic Art
The heart of the collection consists of about 70 pieces, mostly from Central Africa. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is represented by a magnificent Hemba male figure. Such ancestral statues were carved for chiefs or dignitaries and kept in huts solely created for their protection. They played an important role in the ceremonial and political life of the village (estimate : € 150.000 - 250.000). A a female caryatid figure draped with glass-bead necklaces is also offered for sale. This type of stool was displayed at the investiture ceremonies of Luba chiefs thereby marking a specific historic event. It became the symbol of the chief’s power and proof of his legitimacy (estimate : € 25.000 - 35.000).
Another exceptionally rare piece is the Mambila helmet-mask. In anthropomorphic form, this piece is very impressive for it’s scale and attests years of use. The large upper jaw presents nineteen teeth beneath wide eyes deeply set in two wide eye sockets. The Mambila live on the northern province of Sardauna of Nigeria and make ancestors figures, objets for protection and masks. When not in use they are closely guarded inside a hut by the head of a family and out of sight of women (estimate : € 25.000 - 35.000 €). 
The Tshokwe chair from Angola is of great interest. Copied from a 18th Century European model, this beautiful chair is decorated with images representing everyday life in Africa, including a chief held by two men, a woman smoking a pipe, a woman giving birth and on the openwork back; a sacred cow, two tortoises and five frogs (estimate : € 15.000-20.000). Seventeen Dowayo dolls from Cameroun, form a rare ensemble as their are both ancient and in very good condition. According to tradition, Dowayo women having difficulty getting pregnant adorned the dolls that they then looked after as surrogate babies. They used to carry the ‘babies’ on their backs, often encased in strands of beads, shells, coins and pendants, an ultimate symbol of potential motherhood (these dolls will be sold in four lots, each estimated € 5.000-7.000)  
The Oceanic section of the collection (27 lots) includes many small size objects of great quality and ethnographic interest, with particular emphasis on Pacific whalebone or shell artefacts. A magnificent ivory necklace from the Fiji Islands, composed of twenty-nine whale ivory teeth is also featured. The necklace served as a symbol of wealth and political power it would have been worn by a high-ranking Fijian man (estimate : € 10.000 – 15.000).
Two beautiful New Guinea masks evoke the collector’s quest for detail and form. The first is masculine and comes from Ramu river. Of almond-shaped form, it is pierced with multiples holes for the attachment of fiber ornaments (estimate : € 8.000 - 12.000 €). The second, from the Lower Sepik River, presents a long carved nose finishing in a stylised bird head, the medial ridge leading to a tiny lizard fixed on the upper part of the forehead (estimate : € 30.000 – 50.000).
Pre-Columbian Art & Khmer Sculpture
The collection features ten Pre-Columbian pieces in stone and ceramic. One of the most interesting sculptures is a fine Guerrero stone figure, which still has much of the red-stuccoed pigment on the body. It is a strong example of the Late Phase of the Chontal style, circa 300-100 BC, which emphasized a more realistic and natural rendering of both the face and the body, a direct precedent to the Teotihuacan style (estimate : € 15.000 – 20.000 €)
In a later and more complex style is a Proto-Mayan, Izapan-style steatite figure, circa 200 BC-AD 200.(Mexico-Guatemala). The compact, dwarf-like figure is shown wearing a mask associated with transformation and ritual events. (estimate : € 15.000 – 25.000). A Teotihuacan mask of an idealized young man, in yellow-green, dates from 450-650 AD.(estimate : 10.000 – 15.000 €).
Highlights of the ceramic of the ceramic statues from Mesoamerica include: a Zapotec figurative urn from Monte Alban, circa 300-600 AD, represents a seated woman with a serene face, wearing a large headdress composed of plumes of feathers and tassels, symbolic of her nahualli, the guardian spirit or alter ego ascribed to each person at birth (estimate : € 10.000 – 15.000). Another figure is from Colima, West Mexico, shows a shaman holding a conch shell used as a trumpet for announcing important ceremonies. The conch shell was recognized as a symbol of power and authority in the late Preclassic period in Mexican and Maya areas. (estimate : € 5.000 – 8.000)..
The collection includes two beautiful Khmer sandstone sculptures : a large torso of Vishnu in the 10th -11th Century style of Angkor Vat (estimate : € 40.000 – 60.000) and a head of Vishnu from the 10th Century in the Koh Ker style (estimate : € 25.000 – 35.000).
European Works of art and Furniture- The collection features an interesting group of Flemish metal works of art such as brass vessels and candlesticks and a rare group of French, Italian and German keys and locks dating from the Middle Ages to the 17th Century, including an 18th Century pistol-key. Among the sculptures is a fine pair of poly-chromed Flemish statues, from Antwerp, from the first half of the 16th Century. They represent The Virgin and Saint John and were probably part of a calvaire (estimate € 10.000 – 15.000).
The furniture section features16th and 17th Century chairs and a large and important Flemish oak armoire with sixteen busts carved in medallions, dated circa 1520 (estimate : € 100.000 –150.000). The European Works of art in the collection includes a rare pair of French 16th Century andirons (estimate : € 25.000 – 35.000), several 16th and 17th Century brass clocks. The collection is rounded out by a small selection of European silver -- a small group of 18th and 19th Century silver beakers and a pair of ‘Puritan’ silver spoons by Stephen Venables, London 1653.