$259,000 Tsimshian Mask Tops Skinner Indian Sale

BOSTON, MASS.

: A Northwest Coast painted wood mask brought a stunning $259,000 at Skinner's September 10 American Indian and Ethnographic auction. The large 14-inch Tsimshian cedar mask, estimated at $40/60,000, dated from the second half of the Nineteenth Century.

The rare mask had an unusual articulated jaw and eyes and was painted with human and avian features, the lips in a bright red. Bidding on the lot was active with it selling to a buyer in the room who was acting on behalf of a client.