Sotheby’s weekend sale in Paris of pre-Columbian artifacts earned about $13.3 million, well below the pre-sale estimate of $19 million to $23 million, according to the auction house.
Four Latin American nations â€" Mexico, Peru, Guatemala and Costa Rica â€" had objected to the sale, and the controversy was publicized heavily in the European media. About half the items from the Barbier-Mueller collection sold in the face of assertions by the four nations that more than 100 of the 313 lots had been illegally exported in the 1900s.
In a statement after the sale, Guillaume Cerutti, president of Sotheby’s France, said, “Despite having achieved less than expected, these results are good considering the context in which the sale unfolded.†Sotheby’s denied that any items were illicit and said they had all been properly researched.
Sotheby’s said the sale still set a world record for an auction of pre-Columbian items. According to the auction house’s Website, the $13 million in sales far outpaced Sotheby’s own recent sales of pre-Columbian works, which totaled $12.7 million over the previous five years.
