Chupícuaro “Large Figurine” Type

Barbier-Mueller Collection at Sotheby’s Paris

In March, Sotheby’s held an auction in Paris of the Barbier-Mueller collection that was a flop.  Gleeful announcements of new auction records and shattered high estimates have become customary in the high end art market; so what went wrong in this case?  The Barbier-Mueller trove of Pre-Columbian art was created over two generations, was widely-published, and had been on public display at the Barbier-Mueller Museum of Pre-Columbian Art in Barcelona.  When an arrangement with the Spanish Government to put the collection on permanent display fell through,[i] the owner, Jean Paul Barbier, decided to sell.

“Grande Vénus Callipyge” at a preview in London.

The two-day auction brought in $13,375,000—a pittance compared to the $19-24 million estimate—and fewer than half of the 313 lots found buyers.  The PR spin-doctors of Sotheby’s focused on the fact that the sale had set a new record for Pre-Columbian Art.  In the post-sale press release,[ii] president of Sotheby’s France, Guillaume Cerutti, said:  “Despite having achieved less than expected, these results are good considering the context in which the sale unfolded.”