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April 13th, 2013 
Peter Nolan
Updated
A number of masks originating from a Native American tribe in Arizona have gone under the hammer in Paris after a legal challenge to stop the sale failed.
The US ambassador to France and actor Robert Redford had both expressed concern about the sale of the 70 masks, which Hopi Indians say are stolen artefacts.
The auction went ahead in front of a standing-room only crowd, raising about 752,000 euros ($938,500) in pre-tax proceeds as collectors snapped up dozens of lots in a sale that lasted more than two hours.
The most expensive, a crow mother mask, went for 160,000 euros ($200,000) – more than three times the pre-sale estimate.
Auctioneer Gilles Neret-Minet says the masks were legally acquired, and a ruling to stop the sale would have jeopardised any future sale of indigenous art in France.
“It’s a controversy which has come around a little late, because most of these objects were sold by the Native Americans themselves, 10, 15, 20, 30 years ago, and then all of a sudden they’re sacred,” he said.
One buyer who acquired four masks said he was delighted to be adding to his collection of Hopi artefacts.
“One day I might give some back,” said the collector, who declined to be identified.
“But if it had not been for collectors in the 19th century who contributed to the field of ethnology, there would very little knowledge of the Hopi.”
One man with Hopi origins studying in France was kicked out of the auction room for interrupting the sale with an angry speech along with several people trying to take photographs.
“We have lots of art that can be shared with other cultures, but not these,” said Bo Lomahquahu, 25.
“Children aren’t even supposed to see them.”
The Neret-Minet, Tessier and Sarrou auctioneers said their collection of masks, priced between $1,900 and $30,400 each, was assembled by “an amateur with assured taste” who lived in the United States for three decades.
ABC/Reuters
Topics:
indigenous-other-peoples,
arts-and-entertainment,
france,
united-states
First posted
Source Article from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-04-13/native-american-artefacts-go-under-hammer-at-auction/4627042
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