The Historical Evolution of Commercial Art Collecting

Rainer F. Buschmann, California State University Channel Islands

Corporate art collecting, including Oceanic material culture, went through several stages that included commercialization, investment, philanthropy, and, finally, a concern for human resources. The commercial investment in ethnographic collecting is almost as old as the activity itself. For instance, as numerous collections returned from James Cook’s three voyages, many artifacts ended up in the enterprising hands of dealer/collectors who would then market the objects to interested clients. By the nineteenth century, especially in connection with natural-history specimens, dedicated dealers emerged in major Euro-American cities. As the rare “cabinets of curiosities” gave way to more specialized museum collections, the demand for exotic natural history or ethnographic specimens increased (Coote et al., 2017; Barrow, 2000).

In the nineteenth-century Pacific, a new experiment combined commercial and scientific inquiry. The J.C. Godeffroy & Son company, created by French Huguenot refugees in the northern German city of Hamburg, had successfully switched from its beginnings in the Atlantic to making money from coconut oil and copra in the Pacific. The founder of the company, Johann Cesar Godeffroy VI, opened a curated museum in Hamburg specializing in natural history and ethnography from the Pacific. To support this endeavor, Godeffroy contracted professional collectors, such as Johann Stanislaus Kubary and Richard Parkinson, to return specimens to Hamburg. To market duplicate objects, the museum curators created catalogs to sell items to individuals and institutions throughout Europe. But the economic downturn following German unification in 1871 was not kind to the Godeffroy company. By the 1880s, company officials had to liquidate the museum collection well below the expected price (Penny 2000).

Other companies followed Godeffroy’s lead—most prominently, Hernsheim & Co. operating in the Bismarck Archipelago and the Marshall Islands. When this company expanded into the western regions of the Bismarck Archipelago in the 1890s, they obtained, besides the desired copra and marine resources, large numbers of indigenous artifacts, which they initially sold to passing tourists. When company head Max Thiel became cognizant that exporting objects to Germany would increase his profit margin, he put together a large cache of ethnographica and shipped it to Europe. However, once these artifacts reached their destination, Thiel received an unwelcome response from ethnographic museum officials appalled at the lack of proper provenance accompanying the objects—few carried indigenous names and even less had detailed explanation chronicling their use—and there were many duplicate and redundant pieces. Felix von Luschan, who curated the African and Oceanic collection at the Berlin Royal Ethnographic Museum, even accused Thiel of having denuded entire islands of their artifacts. The head of the Hernsheim company experienced firsthand that ethnographica made for fickle business and pushed his collection activities into other regions, such as the procurement of German state decorations.

Thiel reached a more satisfying commercial agreement when he left the Pacific in 1910. Emil Timm, Thiel’s successor, was to keep collecting exceptional examples of material culture that included much-desired pieces from the Baining and the Sulka in New Britain. Once the artifacts reached Hamburg, the director of the local ethnographic museum received first choice of the objects and took over financial negotiation with other directors or traders, much to Thiel’s relief. However, the First World War and the associated loss of German colonies brought this arrangement to an end (Buschmann 2009; forthcoming).

Friedrich (father of Max) Thiel (seated) and Hernsheim captain Eduard Macco displaying Malagan treasures, 1902, courtesy Dieter Klein.

The conclusion of anthropology’s so-called museum age (c.1870–1920) lowered the demand for indigenous artifacts (Sturtevant, 1969). At the same time, the interwar years also created an awareness of African and Oceanic art among Euro-American artists, who sought to explore new avenues associated with expressionism and surrealism. Ethnographica traders were thus able to continue their business operations until the end of the Second World War (see, for instance, Schindlbeck 2012).

The post-WWII era witnessed a significant transformation in commercial art collecting. David Rockefeller is generally credited with transforming companies into collectors of art when he advised the Chase Manhattan Bank to acquire art. A few years later, another prominent member of this family, Michael Rockefeller, disappeared on a collection trip among the Asmat in Irian Jaya, indicative of the family’s early desire to include non-western art in their collections. Other banks and businesses followed in this new direction. Is it estimated, for instance, that Deutsche Bank owns no less than 70,000 works of art. Corporate collecting over the past sixty years has also experienced transformations. From early CEO self-indulgence in philanthropy—something the French entitled “danseuse du president” or the president’s dancer— art collection in the business world became more focused by consulting art historians and the hiring of dedicated curators. Initially, corporate art collections focused on public relations and entertaining customers. From the 1990s forward, corporations employed art to enrich the workplace and the retention of employees (Bohlen, 2013).

The art collection of the Masco Corporation reflects all of the above listed tendencies. Alex Mangoonian, a survivor of the Armenian genocide, founded Masco Corporation shortly before the Great Depression. The Detroit-based company is best known for developing the single-handle faucet, which revolutionized the industry. Alex’s son Richard joined the company

in the 1950s, and, under his leadership, it diversified further to include home improvement, heavy equipment, and automotive parts. Richard Mangoonian also invested in an extensive art collection. Initially, he collected American art to reflect his sense of patriotism or “a deep-seated feeling for this country, that my family’s had going back for many years” (Salvassy, 1989). His collection comprises over 1,000 paintings estimated at $250 million (Simmons, 2015).

By the 1980s, Mangoonian’s focus expanded to include Native American and Oceanic art. The Masco CEO developed a close relationship with the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), which exhibited many great pieces and provided curatorial assistance for his art collection. In 1994, 76 artifacts of the Oceanic Masco Collection went on an exhibit traveling the United States until 1996. The emphasis of the collection was less on comprehensiveness from a particular area but more on superb, one-of-a-kind objects. Australian veteran dealer Wayne Heathcote primarily assembled the collection, which was curated by DIA Curator of African, New World, and Oceanic Cultures Michael Kan. The exhibition and the associated catalog (Wardwell, 1994) received mixed reviews. While the catalog received awards for design, editing, and manufacturing, Oceanic art historians and anthropologists were less forgiving: Robert Welsch (1995) complained of the quality of photography and also corrected many errors in the text was as well as some worrisome statements about Melanesian art. Jerry Feldmann (1995), who reviewed the exhibit at the Honolulu Academy of Art, applauded the rare pieces but found the placement of the objects on pedestals against white walls quite old fashioned. He lauded the Honolulu Academy, however, for organizing a series of symposia and talks that were able to provide greater context for the exhibited pieces. Perhaps most damning was Diane Losche’s review of the catalog that amounted to a “lamentation for the loss of the traditional along with a bid for the value of this particular collection… Quelle Horreur! So much for modernity” (Losche, 1997, 270).

The fate of the Masco Oceanic collections was tied to the financial fortunes of the company. The diversification of Masco’s portfolio under Richard Mangoonian also revealed some problematic expansion. For instance, heavy investments in furniture manufacture were not conducive to automated manufacture, and, with increasing losses, Masco shareholders clamored to contain Mangoonian’s “dancers.” The company-owned gallery Beacon Hill on Madison Avenue in New York closed down in the late 1990s (Vogel, 1998). A number of the valuable pieces of the Oceanic collection were auctioned at Sotheby’s New York in 2001 and 2002—where the present Iatmul mask was sold on November 15, 2002. Although the DIA hoped to keep the best artifacts, it was ultimately the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) that acquired close to 50 objects (LACMA, 2009), where a great many of them are now on display in a hall dedicated to the arts of the Pacific.

REFERENCES CITED: Barrow, Mark V. 2000. “The Specimen Dealer: Entrepreneurial Natural History in America’s Gilded Age.” Journal of the History of Biology 33: 493-534. Bohlen, Celestine. 2013. “The Evolution of Collections Held by Businesses.” New York Times, December 4. Buschmann, Rainer F. 2009. Anthropology’s Global Histories: The Ethnographic Frontier in German New Guinea, 1870–1935. Honolulu:

University of Hawai`i Press. Forthcoming. Hoarding New Guinea (ca. 1870–1920): Writing Colonial Collection Histories for Post-Colonial Futures. Coote, Anne et al. 2017. “When Commerce, Science, and Leisure Collaborated: The Nineteenth-Century Global Trade Boom in Natural

History Collections.” Journal of Global History 12: 319–339. Feldman, Jerome. 1995. “Review of the Exhibit Island Ancestors: Oceanic Art from the Masco Collection at the Honolulu Academy of Arts.” Journal of the Pacific Art Association 11/12: 112–113. LACMA. 2009 “LACMA’s Pacific Collection Now Online” http://lacmaonfire.blogspot.com/2009/03/lacmas-pacific-island-collection-now.html accessed 6 June, 2021.

Artifacts from the Sepik River displayed for sale at the Hotel Deutscher Hof, ca. 1913/14, courtesy Dieter Klein.

Losche, Diane. 1997. “Review of Island Ancestors: Oceanic Art from the Masco Collection.” Oceania 67: 270–271. Penny, H. Glenn. 2000 “Science and the Marketplace: The Creation and Contentious Sale of the Museum Godeffroy.” Journal of the Pacific

Arts Association 21/22: 7–22. Schindlbeck, Markus. 2012. Gefunden und Verloren. Arthur Speyer, die dreissiger Jahre und die Verluste der Sammlung Südsee des

Ethnologischen Museums Berlin. Berlin: Ethnologisches Museum. Silvassy, Kathleen. 1989. “Manoogian Collection: American Industrialist Waves the Flag with Art.” Los Angeles Times, June 19. Simmons, Scott. 2015. “Consummate Collector: Richard Manoogian’s Collection comes to the Lighthouse ArtCenter.” Palm Beach Florida

Weekly, November 12. Sturtevant, William C. 1969. “Does Anthropology Need Museums?” Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 82: 619–650. Vogel, Carol. 1998. “Inside Art.” New York Times, September 25. Wardwell, Allen. 1994. Island Ancestors: Oceanic Art from the Masco Collection. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1994. Welsch, Robert. 1995. “Review of Island Ancestors: Oceanic Art from the Masco Collection.” Journal of the Pacific Arts Association 11/12: 111–112.

16 Manam Island Mask

Manam Island, Madang Province, Papua New Guinea Collected by Angel Bottaro and Joel Gauvin, Melbourne Dale Hardcastle Collection, Singapore Published in Michael Hamson Oceanic Art Paris 2014, no. 17, pages 38/9 19th century 25 ½” (65 cm) in height

This pre-contact, stone-carved mask from Manam Island exudes the integrity of an ancient, well-used ritual object. The layers of pigment are a testament to the many occasions the mask has danced in the service of a village. The orange, red, and pink pigments stacked on top of each other create a depth of color both beautiful and culturally significant.

17 New Ireland Tatanua Mask

New Ireland Province, Papua New Guinea Ladislas Segy Gallery, New York, 1950s/60s New York private collection Frank Landau Collection, Frankfurt Late 19th century 14 ½” (36.9 cm) in height

The Tatanua masks of New Ireland are some of the boldest and most striking in all of Oceania. With tall, crested headdresses atop intricately carved wooden faces with eerily natural-looking shell eyes and large open mouths baring teeth, the masks are visually exciting. This example is superb with its spiked white side, open-work face, and double eyes.

18 Astrolabe Bay Mask

Astrolabe Bay, Madang Province, Papua New Guinea Reportedly from a German or Eastern European museum, inventory number B. 10172 painted in black on white background on mask’s reverse. Wayne Heathcote, London Faith-Dorian and Martin Wright, New York, acquired from above on 18 July 1980 Carbon dated to the following date ranges: Between 1692 to 1728 AD (26.6% probability) and 1810 to 1920

AD (73.4% probability). 20 7/8” (53 cm) in height

The art from Astrolabe Bay is some of rarest and least understood in New Guinea. As the area was settled by German missionaries in the 1880s, much of the ritual culture was gone by 1897. As such, there are only 26 Astrolabe Bay masks known. This superb example from the Wright Collection is quintessential for the genre with oversized features—loop ears, nose, and radiating eyes. The patina is thick, dark, and encrusted.