Sub-Saharan African Art at Christie’s, Featuring the Guy Laliberté Collection

Guy Laliberté, who is the founder of Le Cirque du Soleil, Lune Rouge, and One Drop Foundation, also has a passionate interest in traditional arts of non-European people. To curate and assist this interest, he sought out the assistance of the curators at Christie’s. The team helped him acquire works in the past and now pass on some of those works to the future, via the Guy Laliberté Collection sale. The objects in the sale originated in the cultures of sub-Saharan Africa and were curated for Laliberté to reflect the emotion, ceremony, and stylistic command represented by Le Cirque de Soleil. These items have been displayed around the world.

One notable lot from the sculptural and ceremonial art of the collection is a Kota-Ndassa reliquary figure from Gabon. The figure is made in the Ndassa style, which the auction house says is “characterized by an attempt to create a third dimension,” which differentiates the Kota-Ndassa effigies from other Gabon statuary. Further differentiating features include the use of various metals and alloys to create colorful affects such as “red copper for the cheeks, [and] iron for the arched brows and ‘tears.’” Other works in the sale include a bearded Hemba figure from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a seated Djenné terra cotta figure from Niger, a Yoruba Adénlá or “Beaded Crown” from Nigeria, and more. View any of these lots and register to bid with Christie’s.