Tom Mashberg at the New York Times points out that Sotheby’s pre-Columbian sale in Paris made more than the previous five years of sales:
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 — Mexico, Peru, Guatemala and Costa Rica — 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.
Sale of Pre-Columbian Art Falls Short of Expectations (ArtsBeat)
