Kuhn Collection of African Art Will Go on the Block

Dr. Robert and Helen Kuhn’s Los Angeles-based collection of African art will be offered for sale Nov. 20 at Sotheby’s New York. The auction house has estimated the value of the 140 objects to be sold at $2.8 million to $3.9 million.

The highlight of the sale is a 12th-Century terra cotta sculpture from Mali depicting a mythic animal, thought to be a ram. The graceful, 31-inch-tall figure--one of fewer than a dozen of its type--is valued at $250,000 to $350,000.

Also bearing a $250,000 to $350,000 estimate is a Luba royal caryatid stool from Zaire. A kneeling female figure forms the base of the stool and supports the round seat with her head and upraised hands.

Among other prime pieces are a Fang reliquary guardian figure ($150,000 to $200,000) and a Tshokwe male figure representing a hunter chief ($100,000). While these two dignified wood sculptures stand tall, a terra cotta horseman from the Inland Niger Delta ($100,000 to $150,000) strikes a contorted pose and sticks out his tongue.

The Kuhn collection is a star attraction in the fall auction season, said Bernard de Grunne, head of Sotheby’s tribal art department. The sale is much smaller than the $7.1 million auction of the Harry A. Franklin Family Collection in 1990, which set a record for African art in the $3.4-million sale of the “Bangwa Queen.” But interest in the upcoming auction is strong because the Kuhns “have a very good reputation and a high profile as serious, longtime collectors,” De Grunne said.

“There are some great objects and they should do very well,” he said. “My market hasn’t suffered too much in the recession. If you have good material, properly estimated, it will sell.”

The Nov. 20 auction signals the departure of another Los Angeles primitive art collection, but the loss is not as great as it appears.

“This is only about one-third of our collection. Two-thirds has already been donated to UCLA’s Fowler Museum of Cultural History,” Helen Kuhn said. About half of the primitive art given to UCLA consisted of musical instruments; the remainder included masks, figures and pieces that the museum had exhibited, she said.

The Kuhns also have donated a Congo power figure to the National Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington and a Baule mask to the Center of African Art in New York.

“The institutions made the selections,” Helen Kuhn said. “The Smithsonian keeps its collection on view and functions as an arbiter of taste, so it was important for them to have one fine object. UCLA is a teaching institution, so its needs are different. The Center of African Art is looking for a new location in Soho. It is going to become a collecting museum, so we thought we would start them off.”

The couple began collecting contemporary art in the ‘60s, then shifted to pre-Columbian art until 1972 when new regulations prohibited Mexican exports of pre-Columbian material. They switched to African art and Helen Kuhn has actively promoted the appreciation of ethnic art through support groups at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and UCLA. She also has served on the board of the National Museum of African Art.

Her interest in African art hasn’t waned. The couple is simply dispersing its collection because Dr. Kuhn, a cardiologist, has retired and they are settling into a new lifestyle, she said.

“I’m very happy about the auction,” Kuhn said. “I really feel that I have had the essence of the collection. My favorite pieces I can recall in a moment. There’s only one piece that I wanted to keep, the ram.”