Minneapolis collector's $41.6 million African art sale sets NY record

Myron Kunin, art collector and Regis Corp, founder

The African art collection of the late Minneapolis collector Myron Kunin sold for a record $41.6 million at Sotheby's in New York on Tuesday.

An extremely rare Senufo Female Statue (pictured at right) shattered the previous world record when it went for $12,037,000. Carved by an artist known as the Master of Sikasso, the Ivory Coast sculpture is one of only five Senufo figures of that type known.

Calling it the Kunin Senufo Female Statue, Sotheby's described it as a "quintessential masterpiece of African abstraction." It has been widely exhibited, published in numerous important books on the subject, and was included in the Museum of Modern Art's pivotal 1984 exhibition "Primitivism in Modern Art."

Three additional sculptures from Kunin's collection fetched record prices: a Ngbaka Statue of the Mythical Ancestor Setu which went for $4,085,000, a Fang-Betsi Reluquary Head, which sold for $3,637,000 and a Kongo-Yombe Maternity Group which fetched $3,525,000.

The Kunin sale brought in more than $10 million above the high estimate that Sotheby's had set before the sale. The auction house described the results as a "historic total" that was the highest ever for African art. The sale results totaled $41,617,500.

Of the 164 pieces in Kunin's African art collection, all but 40 sold Tuesday morning.

Passionate, independent-minded and discerning about art, he amassed world-class collections in several fields, most notably American art from 1900 to 1950. His holdings in that area -- including pieces by Georgia O'Keeffe, Philip Guston, Morris Kantor, Marsden Hartley and Guy Pene Du Bois -- are considered by some to be even more important than the African collection.

More than 75 of Kunin's American paintings were shown at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in 2005 in a show called "Villa America." The museum owns very few American paintings from the first half of the 20th century and officials there obviously hoped that Kunin would give or bequeath some key works to the museum where he was a longtime trustee.

Gregarious but publicity shy, Kunin and his wife Anita generously supported many cultural institutions in the Twin Cities. Those gifts were and are typically given in the name of Regis Corporation including the lead gift for the Regis Center for Art at the University of Minnesota, the Regis Master series of exhibitions at the Northern Clay Center and the Regis Foundation for Breast Cancer Research.

Often Kunin bought art in areas that were overlooked, unfashionable or neglected by museums as well as other collectors. As a result he sometimes was ahead of the herd and able to acquire unusual works for comparatively modest prices. At the same time he was quite willing to pay top dollar for prime pieces and he knew very well what they were. Unlike many business moguls who dabble in art, he did not rely on the advice of hired curators but on his own highly educated eye and mind.

"People know I'm psychotic about art and they submit a lot of things to me, but I can't buy everything because it depends on the cash flow of the moment," he told the Star Tribune in a 2005 interview. "So I'm sometimes forced to sell some things to buy something else."