NEW YORK, NY.- On 11 November 2014 Sotheby’s New York will present In Pursuit of Beauty: The Myron Kunin Collection of African Art in a single owner sale of approximately 190 lots, estimated to fetch $20-30 million. Assembled by Myron Kunin, whose Regis Corporation incorporates over 10,000 salons worldwide including brands from Supercuts to Vidal Sassoon and Jean-Louis David, the collection is considered to be among the finest private groups of non-western art in the world. The outstanding highlight of the sale will be The Senufo Female Statue (Deble), Ivory Coast, one of the most iconic and widely-published works of African Art (Estimate upon request). The pre-sale exhibition opens in New York on 8 November with highlights being shown in Paris from 9-22 September.

Heinrich Schweizer, Head of Sotheby’s African and Oceanic Art Department, recalls: “Myron Kunin was one of the most passionate, knowledgeable, and uncompromising collectors I have ever met. He had the rare ability to identify the very best artworks, irrespective of culture or time-period, and then the courage and unwavering commitment to do whatever it took to acquire them. The result was a world-class collection that stands as one of the finest ever assembled in the field of African Art.”

Myron Kunin (1928 – 2013) dedicated his life to beauty, both as a businessman and art collector. A modest, self-made man, he transformed his family’s small business in Minnesota into a global empire. The world’s largest chain of hair salons and beauty products, Regis Corporation is now a Fortune 1000 company encompassing more than 10,000 hair salons worldwide and numerous brands from Supercuts to Vidal Sassoon and Jean-Louis David. Focusing his refined eye on major works of outstanding quality, Mr. Kunin assembled world-renowned collections in multiple fine art fields, including American, European Old Master, Russian, and 19th century paintings, as well as African Art, acquiring best-of-type examples in all of these categories. Mr. Kunin was also known for his significant philanthropic gifts to a range of organizations including the Walker Art Center, the Northern Clay Center, The University of Minnesota’s Regis Center for the Arts and, perhaps most notably, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts where he was a dedicated chairman and life trustee.

Highlights of the Collection
Presenting masterpieces in all areas, the Kunin Collection is particularly strong in works of great refinement and classical beauty originating from Ivory Coast, Gabon, and the Congo, none more so than The Senufo Female Statue (Deble), also known as a rhythm-pounder. These sculptures were venerated as objects of devotion by the Senufo people of Ivory Coast, and are among the most celebrated works of African Art. The Kunin figure belongs to the exceptionally rare Sikasso style, of which only five others are known. Exemplifying the essence of African Art by blending movement and sculpture, the figure has been exhibited in many of the most important US museums including The Art Institute of Chicago, The Detroit Institute of Arts, The Museum for African Art, New York, and the Minneapolis Institute of
Arts, and most notably as one of the centerpieces of the legendary exhibition “Primitivism” in 20th Century Art at the Museum of Modern Art in 1984. The figure was formerly in the personal collection of William Rubin, the director of Paintings and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, who acquired it directly from Werner Muensterberger, another major collector. When Mr. Rubin consigned it to Sotheby’s New York in 1991, it became the first African sculpture to sell for more than $1 million dollars.

• Kongo-Yombe Maternity Group (phemba), Democratic Republic of the Congo Height: 11 inches Estimate: $1.5/2 million
Previously one of the centerpieces of the collection of Robert Rubin, this Yombe phemba maternity is of exceptional sculptural quality. The rare iconography of the child figure seated on the mother’s foot, the highly expressive style, as well as the deep, glossy patina, and beautifully rubbed surface distinguish it as one the finest Yombe sculptures known.

• Songye Janus-Headed Community Power Figure, Democratic Republic of the Congo Height: 39 ½ inches Estimate: $1/1.5 million
This impressive Janus-headed figure is among the finest sculptures in the entire Songye corpus, and is of large scale and extremely rare iconography: a two-faced spirit, one displaying the iconic Songye white-striped kifwebe mask, and the other bearing an oily deep red surface. A tour-de-force of the cubistic abstraction for which the Songye are famous, it was formerly one of the centerpieces of the Allan Stone collection, who acquired it from the great New York dealer Merton D. Simpson.

• Fang Reliquary Head, Gabon Height: 17 inches Estimate: $600/900,000
This magnificent Fang head was first published in Carl Einstein’s groundbreaking publication Negerplastik in 1915. The art dealer and critic Robert J. Coady, who was the first to display African art in an art gallery in New York, owned the piece by 1914 and had acquired it from the pioneering dealer of modern and ancient art, Joseph Brummer. Most recently the Kunin Fang head was on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the Exhibition African Art, New York, and the Avant-Garde (2012-2013). In addition to its important early history, the Kunin Fang head is distinguished by a rich, oily patina, an intensely pensive expression, and extraordinary sculptural quality, seen in the finely incised coiffure and massive, elegantly rounded volumes.

• Ngbaka Male Ancestor Figure, Democratic Republic of the Congo Height: 19 inches Estimate: $1.2/1.8 million
Extensively published and exhibited throughout the 20th century, this extremely rare Ngbaka figure from the Ubangi river region is, according to the scholar William Fagg, “the finest from the area”. It was in the collections of some of the most important figures in the history of avant-garde art in Europe and America. The earliest known Western owner was the French painter, and one of the very earliest collectors of African art, Georges de Miré, whose collection was sold at auction in Paris in 1931. At that auction it was acquired by perhaps the most influential dealer and promoter of African art of the 20th century, Charles Ratton. By 1935 it was owned by Pierre Matisse, son of Henri and a prominent dealer of Modern art in New York. From Matisse it was acquired by the avant-garde New York art critic Frank W. Crowninshield. It was then acquired in the early 1940s by the sculptor Chaim Gross, and was the centerpiece of his collection.

• Kuyu Head, Democratic Republic of the Congo Height: 10 ½ inches Estimate: $250,000-350,000
This ancient Kuyu head was the most famous work in the collection of William W. Brill, and is one of only a handful of works by the same artist. Other works by the same hand are the three-faced figure in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the standing female figure in the collection of Robert T. Wall, previously in the Vérité collection, and a three-faced head sold at Sotheby’s, Paris, June 16, 2010, lot 72. It features a rich, glossy dark reddish brown patina, elaborate, deeply incised patterns representing scarification, and a dignified, transcendent expression.

• Baule Seated Female Figure (Blolo Bla), Ivory Coast Height: 19 5/8 inches. Estimate: $300,000-500,000
With a glossy, black patina, extremely refined sculptural quality, and a serene, meditative pose, the Kunin Baule seated female figure is one of only a handful of early Baule statues considered to be the pinnacle of this style, together with the famous standing male figure previously in the collection of Robert Rubin. It was collected before 1939 by Roger Bediat, and was subsequently in the collections of Helene Leloup and Morris Pinto. The Kunin figure was included in Susan M. Vogel’s definitive 1997 exhibition Baule: African Art, Western Eyes.

• Yoruba Shango Scepter, Nigeria Height: 20 5/8 inches Estimate: $250,000-350,000
This Yoruba Shango Scepter was one of the highlights of the legendary collection of Hubert Goldet in Paris. The lively figure is made up of plump rounded forms and turns her head in an animated guesture, transcending the familiar format of a figural Shango scepter. An exceptionally fine, rubbed glossy patina attests to a long period of handling and use in situ.