PEOPLE
Hubert Goldet left us on March 28, 2000. He was an original figure in the tribal art world, and an outstanding person. His love of art led him off the beaten track, far from the business world. He was a true art lover-in the sense of collecting art for the love of it-and his shade now roams through the rooms of the Pavillon des Sessions at the Musée du Louvre, where three very rare African sculptures from his collection are on display.Marie Louise Bastin trod the path of the ancestors one spring night this year. Although she had been living in Portugal for several years, she was always willing to write about the Chokwe people. With her characteristic delicacy and honesty, she gave the University of Coimbra all of her notes, photographs, and a large part of her library in memory of the welcome she received from the Angola Diamond company when she traveled to Dundo in 1956. The University of Porto recently paid homage to her and her work.
My favorite letter in the correspondence file of Carl Schuster (1904-1969) was written from New York during the Second World War. Carl addressed it to a friend in London to whom he regularly sent a package containing soap, socks, tea, and jam on the last day of each month. His letter explained a one-day delay: the previous evening Miguel Covarrubias had arrived unexpectedly, bringing with him "the young Rockefeller" (Nelson) and "a tall Czech or Hungarian count" (RenŽ D'Harnoncourt). Carl uncorked a bottle of wine he had been saving for a victory celebration and they talked until 3 a.m. about creating a museum for tribal arts. I cannot think of four people better qualified to address that question. From that evening's discussion came New York's Museum of Primitive Art and its successor, the Rockefeller wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The art of Africa enjoyed a period of great popularity on the international art market in the 1980s. Of the important collections that were compiled during that decade, many have become well known, and the collectors who formed them have often become important supporters of public museum collections, contributing time, objects and financial support to institutions that might otherwise have less active resources. Among these is Richard Faletti, whose energy for collecting and institutional involvement seems almost boundless.
Scholar, author and collector specializing in the art of the Massim area of Eastern New Guinea, Harry Beran has studied the material culture of the region for over 30 years. He has made six trips into this remote area to meet the people, to see the places where the artworks were made, and to collect information. Although he fell into the field by chance, his focused pursuit of both knowledge and objects has led to the formation of one of the most comprehensive and best-documented collections of Massim art in private hands. In his research he has undertaken the examination and analysis of a significant percentage of the Massim material in public and private collections around the world. He refers to this single-minded pursuit as a "hobby."
The tribal art world has more than its fair share of characters and larger-than-life personalities, but even in this company, Mark Blackburn stands out from the crowd. By the age of ten he had amassed a serious coin collection, and at thirteen he was already a dealer. While still in his teens he discovered that many of the Swiss banks had never been numismatically searched and that it was possible to buy rare gold coins from them at the bullion value—coins which could then be sold to collectors at a substantial profit. At the same time, rare European coins could be found in America and traded the opposite direction. Soon he was commuting across the Atlantic as often as three or four times a month. By the age of nineteen he was a self-made millionaire. Those who remember Blackburn at this period recall his formidable energy and single-mindedness.