The Associated Press reports on the sale of Director Jonathan Demme’s Haitian art collection later this month in Philadelphia:

“If you’re falling in love with a country, falling in love with their art is a great lubricant and a great elixir,” Demme said. “Haitian art led me to Haiti for the first time, and I discovered a great country and a great people, and the art takes on a greater meaning for me now.”

Now 70 and having spent the better part of three decades amassing pieces from Haiti and other Caribbean countries as well as the United States, South America and Africa, the director of “The Silence of the Lambs” said he’s looking to “streamline and simplify” his life by selling 90 percent of his well-regarded collection of self-taught or “outsider” art.

More than 900 pieces — many of them by artists with little or no formal training but abundant talent — will be auctioned at Philadelphia’s Material Culture on March 29-30. The sale will be preceded by a weeklong exhibition that is free and open to the public.

Jonathan Demme selling vast art collection in Pa. (Sacramento Bee)