Fall 2019 - My Word

We are sad to announce the passing of Jacques Chirac and Michael Coe both whom made made contribution to the understanding and appreciation of Ethnographic Art. We have covered their passing in this issue.

While the art market continues to be unstable with both high and low moments one can generalize that fresh top material with solid collection history rules the day.,. The Teresaki collection featured some Northwest Coast material that had been seen before and was not the best of the best. High estimates doomed these objects which failed to sell. We continue to catalog for auction houses and have been involved in some auctions this fall with more planned for the winter and spring. We hope to be able to make some announcements soon about some major offerings that are under consideration.

We also noted in this issue the return of our intern Ana Norman and the arrival of our new intern Veronica Barrera . Both have been great this semester and we hope to keep them into them into the Spring.

In this issue there are some fascinating segments on the market and authenticity. We also continue to cover repatriation which becomes increasingly confusing as conflicting agendas seem to make the environment less conducive to real solutions. It has also become less about the art than it is about power and influence. While this situation is hardly new it suggests a trend that continues in a direction that will ultimately not be good for collectors or museums..

I have seen many changes in 45 years; however nothing is more exciting than learning our discoveries about the past are not near the end but very definitely just begining . New discoveries at Machu Pichu and with LIDAR are noted here. And a tease in the Christmas issue we will have more news on an object that I appraised in 2007 for millions of dollars.

Finally this quarter has been an active time for breaking news in the art world. We could not include everything in this newsletter. For updates on repatriation and other important stories, please go directly to the blog at arttrak.com