New York, 28 March 2014, Art Media Agency (AMA).

The second session of the sale of the collection of Allan Stone is to take place on 16 May at Sotheby’s New York.

It is to present works of African, Pre-Colombian, and Native American art. The first session of pieces collected by the famous art dealer took place in November 2013, achieving $11,489,750 — one of the most significant totals for an auction of African and Oceanian art, with a sell-through rate of 94%. The auction’s major lot, a sculpture of a Songye Power Figure from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was sold to the Dallas Museum of Art for $2,165,000.

Allan Stone (1932-2006) acquired his first Nkisi sculpture in 1954, while he was still a student. In 1960 he opened a gallery in New York, where he juxtaposed African sculpture with artworks by Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Joseph Cornell, John Graham, John Chamberlain and Arman, engendering dialogue and exchange between the two. Over the course of the decades that followed he amassed one of the most important private collections of arts from primary cultures — particularly notable for its Songye and Kongo sculptures.