Alan and Marianne Schwartz were committed philanthropists, collectors and civic advocates, whose legacy is felt deeply in their hometown of Detroit, Michigan. Their art collecting journey began as a result of Marianne’s study of art history at Wellesley and Barnard, and resulted in one of the most celebrated collections of Western prints in the United States (exhibited at the Detroit Institute of Art in 1990 as Master Prints of Five Centuries: The Alan and Marianne Schwartz Collection). In addition to their prints, the Schwartz’ were enthusiastic collectors of Pre-Columbian art and antiquities in the 1960s. Sotheby’s is pleased to offer these works from the Schwartz collection, a number of which were exhibited in the Meadow Brook Art Gallery exhibition, Art of Pre-Columbian America, in 1976.

Pre-Columbian Art from the Collection of Alan E. and Marianne Schwartz, Michigan

Ancient Sculpture in Gold, Stone, and Ceramic

African Art from the Michael Roth Family Collection

A Passion for Africa

A Fang-Ntumu figure once in the collections of Charles Ratton, Louis Carré, and Olivier Le Corneur

The Beauty of Form

Fang-Ntumu Reliquary Guardian Figure, Gabon

A South African figural snuff container from the collection of Saul and Marsha Stanoff

A Zulu Masterpiece

The Miller Family Collection in Chicago has a wide selection of West Mexican figural sculptures. Collected in the mid 1960s and 1970s, a number of figures were exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago and Los Angeles County Museum of Art in the important touring exhibition, Ancient West Mexico: Art and Archaeology of the Unknown Past, in 1998 and 1999.

Pre-Columbian Art from the Miller Family Collection, Chicago

Figures in Clay

Kota ancestor sculpture from Equatorial Atlantic Africa

Metal Abstraction

New York

Vice President | Head of Department

Alexander Grogan

Assistant Vice President, Specialist

Paul Lewis

Consultant

Stacy Goodman

Department Assistant

Camille Hamant

Meet our Specialists

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Sotheby’s annual New York sale of the Art of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas brings together a careful selection of artworks representing the primary cultures of Sub-Saharan Africa, the Pacific Islands, and Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, drawn from private collections and estates in the United States and Europe. Three midwestern American collections lead this year’s selection: African Art from the Michael Roth Family Collection, St. Louis; Pre-Columbian Art from the Collection of Alan E. and Marianne Schwartz, Michigan; and Pre-Columbian Art from the Miller Family Collection, Chicago. Other properties include two rediscovered African masks which were acquired from Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York in 1935, and Kota Reliquary Figure deaccessioned from the University of Pennsylvania in 1936.