Curious collection of bears and skulls goes up for auction at Sotheby's

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/feb/12/curious-collection-bears-skulls-auction-sothebys

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One of the most unusual auctions of a single collection ever to take place, with lots that include a toffee tin, cans of coke, novelty cocktail shakers and an 8ft feathered polar bear, is to be staged at Sotheby’s in London next month.

The unifying theme is the anonymous seller’s adoration for everything to do with bears and skulls. For decades say Sotheby’s the seller voraciously collected items with a bears or skulls connection – whether that be 16th century funerary monuments or 20th century arcade games. If that were not enough, the seller also has about £25m worth of contemporary art including works by Warhol, Rothko, Tracey Emin and the Chapman Brothers, which will also be auctioned alongside the diverse array of bears and skull-themed items.

Alex Branczik, in charge of the contemporary art side of the sale, said the auction would be “a carnivalesque experience”, taking place over several days in March at Sotheby’s London headquarters.

His colleague David Macdonald, who is looking after the whackier bears and skulls side, agreed. “We want it to be the greatest show on earth in London. Every department at Sotheby’s – apart from our wine department – is represented, which is extremely rare and demonstrates the breadth of the man who built it.”

The auction house is planning to recreate, as best it can, how the owner displayed the works in his house. “The first time I walked in,” said Branczik. “It was the most incredible sight. You have neon, Warhol, Hirst, the sound of a video installation... a water trough in the middle of the floor. You could spend hours, if not days, in these rooms.

“This is a collector collecting because of an aesthetic interest in something rather than because of value.”

The anonymous vendor has been collecting bears since 1976 and skulls since 1979, possibly for no better reason than he likes them.

The 500 lots range from the relatively cheap, porcelain knick-knacks you might see at your grandma’s house, for example, to the unusual, such as a turquoise hardstone fetish bear made by the Zuni people of New Mexico (£80-120); to the expensive: an important brown bear bronze by Rembrandt Bugatti estimated at £50,000 to £70,000.

In the skulls section buyers might be tempted by a modern plastic diamanté skull telephone (£100-£150) or perhaps two late 19th century skull opium pipe heads (£100-£200).

The one item in the sale joining the two obsessions is a small modern Japanese toy figure of a skeleton in a bear suit, estimated at £40 to £60

The art on sale – that is not bear- or skull-related – includes works by some of the most significant names of European postwar art including Georg Baselitz, Sigmar Polke, Alberto Giacometti as well as many of the YBAs.

A small vibrantly coloured Rothko has an estimated value between £2m and £3m and an Ed Ruscha work called I can’t not do that has an estimate of £1.2m to £1.8m.

“It does feel like one of those Russian dolls; it is a collection within a collection within a collection,” said Macdonald. “There is also a great collection of French art deco posters, for example.”

Because of its scale, the exhibition, called Bear Witness, will be held over seven days before the sale over three days on the 10-12 March.

Neither expert has worked on a sale quite like it before. “He is unlike any collector I’ve come cross, his home is the ultimate installation,” said Macdonald.

“I’d really like people to come to the galleries and have the same joy we had when we went to his house. We want it to be special, we want people to say: ‘Oh my God, have you been into Sothebys? It’s mad!”