Brussels - A fine Iatmul gable mask from New Guinea from Melanesia, acquired circa 1935 by the famous Swiss collector Josef Mueller from the renowned Paris dealer Charles Ratton, was the star lot of Bonhams' African, Oceanic & Pre-Columbian Art sale in Brussels yesterday (24 June 2025). Estimated at €30,000-50,000, it sold for €122,320.

Émilie Jolly, Head of the African and Oceanic Arts department in Belgium, commented: "The success of the Oceanic section demonstrated the current high level of interest amongst collectors for this increasingly rare material and achieved especially strong results. Maoris works of art achieved strong prices such as a fine Maori whalebone hand club sold for €28,160 and a Maori nephrite pendant, hei tiki which sold for €35,840. Our upcoming online sale will take place in Paris from 15 to 25 September. For any consignments or inquiries, please contact the department."

The Pacific section featured several notable pieces, including a rare Cook Islands pole club, akatara, which sold for €63,900 against an estimate of €50,000–60,000, and an exceptionally large ornament from the Marquesas Islands, formerly part of the renowned James Hooper collection, sold for €23,040.

A remarkable Pende mask, collected by Camille-Aimé Coquilhat (1853–1891), sold for €33,280, exceeding its high estimate. Coquilhat joined Stanley's International African Association expedition to the Upper Congo in 1882 and served in Stanleyville until 1884. His experiences among the Ngala people were documented in his 1888 publication Sur le Haut-Congo. Shortly before his death from malaria in Boma in 1891, he was appointed Vice Governor-General of the Congo Free State.

Other highlights of the sale included:

• From New Caledonia, a mask, once in the collection of the famous New York dealer, Mathias Komor, sold for €23,040, and a ceremonial axe adorned with two small carved masks and bound in flying fox fur fibres (called o kono in the Ajië language, or boulaibi bounbout in the Bélep language) sold for €20,480, far exceeding its estimate of €8,000-12,000. These items served as prestige objects, their sole purpose being to highlight the impressive stone discs that composed the head.

• An Austral Islands paddle sold for €12,160.

• A fine Northern Tlingit maskette, from Alaska, which probably once adorned a shaman's headdress, sold for €10,880, twice its estimate of €5,000-8,000.