Top hammer price for Korwar from the Blekkink Collection

The Art of Afrika, the Pacific and the Americas opened the fresh auction year at Lempertz with great hammer prices and a high sales quota. Held in our Brussels office, the exceptional Korwar from the spectacular discovery in the Blekkink Estate exceeded expectations, as did numerous other lots in the auction. 

There was good reason for such great interest ahead of the sale. Offered on 31st January at Lempertz in Brussels, the Korwar was one of an unusually well documented collection of such items found in the estate of Henry Blekkink in The Hague. This example from Cenderawashih Bay thus attracted the attention of numerous bidders. Instead of the expected 15,000 euro, it eventually sold for € 52,900 (incl. commission).

A statue of Dogon (lot 18), characterised by its stylistic proximity to the work of the ‘Master of Ogol’, also lured many bidders. Estimated at 10,000 euro, it took until 20,000 euro to find its new owner. 

After the outstanding result for a Tetela mask which was sold very successfully at Lempertz last year, another of these rare objects went under the hammer with numerous bidders improving the 4000 euro estimate to sell for 20,000 euro.

A Mangbetu hairpin proved that even very fine objects do not escape the attention of the bidders. The 47.5 cm piece was valued at 8000 euro, but was left far behind with a result of 12,600 euro. 

In total, the auction realized a result of over 440,000 euro.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at 0221/92 57 29–57.

Jan Bykowski
Press and public relations
info@lempertz.com