Jean-Pierre Hallet auction in New York

Jean-Pierre Hallet at African Antiques

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Jean-Pierre Hallet auction in New York

A LIFETIME IN AFRICA-THE HALLET AUCTION

"I grew up among the pygmies, learning everything that is their world...making my first bow and arrow, identifying birds and animals."

Jean-Pierre Hallet

see the Results:

Actually sale results were right where we would have expected at about a quarter of a million dollars. The family's expectations entered into the pre-sale estimates. Amazingly enough, the estimates were only a fraction of the appraisals done by some very well known names in the field...........so one wonders what motivates the experts. The auction house did not pay for these consultations and if they did, they certainly would be shouting.

All in all, the auction 85% unreserved made for a great event and a good opportunity for those who came and who participated on the internet to buy. There were more than 5,000 bids on the internet live part of the auction and 30,000 browsers in the catalogue from when it was posted until sale time. 39% of Tuesday's sale was sold to the internet and 52% of Wednesday's sales were sold to the internet.

As you may know, the world record for an Andre Hallet painting was tripled with the sale of Lot #105 at $22,800.

The painting section of the sale was very exciting with several phone bidders from Paris, Belgium and London and active bidding on the internet.

Most items sold under the 300$, but some items went very well.

jean-pierre Hallet Negresse André Hallet, oil on panel

Etude de Negresses

(High Tshuapa, Congo near Lekete)

Signed lower right

23 x 19" / 58.4 x 48.3cm

Sold for 22,500$ all costs included

Sukuma Pair of Figures
Tanzania, East Africa

Life size pair of figures with articulated arms and attached legs. Metal on surface outlining eyes and mouth

70" / 177.8cm (male) and 69 3/4" / 177.2cm (female)

3000$ without costs

Makua Maternity Figure
Tanzania, East Africa

Seated maternity figure with tacks. Baby on lap. Hair at top

36" / 91.4cm 3000$ without costs.

Kongo hallet Kongo Figure
Congo, Central Africa

Ivory carving

5" / 12.7cm 1600$ wothout costs.

Jean-Pierre Hallet grew up on the edge of the Ituri rain forest in central Africa. As a child, the pygmies were his playmates. As an adult, his life's work was to defend and protect his pygmy friends. On May 9 and May 10, 2006 in New York City, Mid-Hudson Auction Galleries will represent the Hallet family, in the offering of hundreds of significant artworks from the collection of Jean-Pierre Hallet. The unprecedented auction of African art will be held in the auditorium of The Church of St. Paul the Apostle on Columbus Avenue between 59th and 60th Street.

Jean-Pierre Hallet was a man more intimately connected to Africa than perhaps any other westerner. His feats were legendary-what one expects of fiction and adventure movies. Newspapers and magazines over three decades reported his life in various ways: He Saves Little People: A Giant Comes To The Rescue; He's The Biggest Of The Little People of Zaire; Humanitarian Sows Seeds of Hope and Pygmies Have A Friend In Hallet. Joanne Grant, President of Mid-Hudson Auction Galleries announced that a portion of the proceeds from this event will benefit The Pygmy Fund.

Born in 1927, Hallet was the son of Andre Hallet, the famed Belgian painter who lived in the Congo. At six, he left his pygmy playmates to go to school in Europe. He was already the height of an average adult pygmy in the forest. He returned in 1948 with a Sorbonne education and a degree in agronomy and sociology. He was 21 years old and 6 feet 5 inches tall. His incredible life was about to unfold.

Jean-Pierre Hallet lived with the pygmies and learned six aboriginal languages. He founded The Pygmy Fund in 1974. His three books about his lifetime of adventure, Pygmy Kitabu, Congo Kitabu and Animal Kitabu were translated into twenty-one languages including Chinese and Russian. Appealing and charismatic, he charmed Tonight Show viewers as a guest of Johnny Carson and was photographed with Dwight Eisenhower.

Those unable to attend the auction may participate as absentee bidders, by telephone or on e-Bay Live. An illustrated 160 page catalogue has been prepared for this event ($45 by priority mail). For more information, visit www. midhudsongalleries.com or contact the auction house directly at mag2715jag@aol.com or by phone 845 534-7828. Fax 845 534-7904.
Contact person: Joanne C. Grant Mid-Hudson Auction Galleries P.O. Box 305 Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York 12520.

"PEOPLE OF LOVE" POEM by Jean-Pierre Hallet

Here stands the Forest, Ituri,
Unsullied and wildly beautiful!
Rich in gauzy orchids, velvet poinsettias and maidenhair ferns.
Fields of moist shade, trembling shadows and shafts of golden sunlight peering through tangled vines and gnarled trees.
A vast garden, an Edenic land,
Free to stand, to bless, to shelter.
Free from screeching sounds, no hot sidewalks and dusty streets
But friendly trees stand with open arms, faithful, loyal.
A solemn mystery, enduring strength.
Like God Himself, they stand, timeless, endless.
This is home for my Pygmy friends.

There are no cathedrals, plush carpets golden alters, nor mammoth organs and choirs.
Worship ascends from greening, moss carpeted aisles of tender, lace-like foliage.
There is no book but Nature's Holy writ, no score to follow
But with grace and poise the Harpist strums his prayer.

I have shared with them their song of life, their laughter and their tears.
We have philosophized in the splendor of the night and nestled by the soft warm fire to count the stars together.
I've rejoiced in their blessings of a brand new life and heard a lullaby.
I have sorrowed as I covered tenderly, with warm brown earth, a beloved and shared a broken heart.

An old man stood alone.
We wept. God was there.
I felt a bond, a mystic bond, stronger than blood itself.
I have carried them in my arms and loved them.
I became to them as one who eases the yoke.
And I have learned as from Solomon or Confucius,
Great wisdom and gained a view, an extraordinary view, of the depth, the height and breadth of Osani, the Pygmy word for Love.

For more informations visit: www.midhudsongalleries.com