Early Inuit art continues to fetch high prices

The results from a recent auction sale of Inuit art in Toronto show once again that early works from the 1950s and 1960s continue to rack up impressive prices.

Collectors are willing to fight over some works, like a carving called “Hooded figure,” by the late John Pangnark of Arviat, which went for $14,000 after heated bidding at the Waddington’s auction house on April 19.

A 1959 Cape Dorset print, “Polar bear and cub in ice,” by Niviaxie, who died that same year, sold for $22,800. Another print by Niviaxie, also from 1959, called “Two bears hunting,” sold for $18,600.

A carving of a woman and a child with a qulliq made by an unidentified Inukjuak arist in the 1950s went for $21,6000.

A 1994 carving by the late Judas Ullulaq of Gjoa Haven netted $19,600.

Works by still-living artists, Ruben Pitoukun, Johnny Inukpuk, Barnabas Arnasungaaq and Kenojoak Ashevak, also sold strongly.

The April 19 auction brought in more than $500,000.

So does this mean Inuit art is a good investment?

Yes, says Christa Ouimet, the Inuit art specialist at Waddingtons.

“Despite economic uncertainty, an unusually strong Canadian dollar and a cloud of volcanic ash hampering travel, our international buyers were again active acquiring several highlight pieces,” Ouimet said.

But collectors are still mainly after pieces produced in the 1950s and 60s, which are now being sold and resold at increasingly higher prices.

Some of the smaller pieces put out at the April 19 auction didn’t get their selling price and so they weren’t sold.

But “anything that was of really good quality, sold and sold strong,” Ouimet said.

What’s not hot for collectors are little pieces and work produced after the 1970s.

“They’re looking for those rare early images and something that stands out, like that Pangnark, which is the kind of thing they will fight over,” Ouimet said.

Waddingtons also runs regular on-line auctions of Inuit art, which works like eBay, where interested buyers put in their bids on- line.