BOULDER, COLO.- A monumental California basket woven with patterns recalling the markings of a rattlesnake, an ancestral Puebloan bird vessel, a rare Mississippian portrait pot and the fossilized remains of creatures that inhabited the Earth millions of years before humans are among the highlights of Artemis Fine Arts and Arte Primitivo’s September 15 auction. Bringing Native American material into dialogue with fossils, meteorites and other natural-history specimens, the sale creates an unusual journey through time — from objects shaped by Indigenous hands and traditions to evidence of animals and cosmic events that predate human history altogether.

The auction forms the first half of a two-day collaboration between Artemis Fine Arts and Arte Primitivo. Day 1 focuses on Pre-Columbian and Native American art alongside fossils and natural-history material, while the September 16 session turns to Egyptian, Greek, Roman and Near Eastern antiquities together with African, tribal and Asian art.

Among the strongest Native American works is Lot 315, a large Yokuts polychrome coiled basket with a rattlesnake motif, estimated at $8,000–$12,000. Dating from the late 19th to early 20th century and measuring an impressive 20 inches in diameter, the California basket is coiled on bundled deergrass and sewn with sedge root, redbud and bracken fern root to create its contrasting tan, reddish-brown and black surface. Vertical columns of stacked hourglass forms and alternating diamonds cover the flaring walls, a design associated with the diamond markings of rattlesnakes native to the region. The evenness of the stitching and the basket’s considerable scale turn an object rooted in daily life into an impressive demonstration of technical control and visual rhythm.

Pottery provides another window into the ingenuity of Indigenous communities of the American Southwest. Lot 297, a Hohokam paddle-and-anvil storage jar, is estimated at $3,000–$4,500. The broad-shouldered vessel rises from a rounded base to an angled shoulder and short everted neck, its buff-colored surface animated by iron-red chevrons, crosses, lenticular forms, diagonal bands and hatched triangles. Unlike coiled pottery, the jar was formed using the paddle-and-anvil technique characteristic of Hohokam ceramic production. Made by communities whose sophisticated canal systems transformed the Sonoran Desert into productive agricultural land, vessels of this type could be used to store grain, seed and water.


Mississippian Effigy Head Pot, Shell Bead Ear Ornaments.

One of the most arresting objects in the Native American section is Lot 295, a Mississippian portrait head vessel with shell bead ear ornaments, carrying an estimate of $7,000–$9,000. Modeled as a human head, the salmon-toned ceramic vessel has heavy-lidded eyes, an angular nose and parted lips incised to reveal a row of teeth. Its projecting ears are pierced and hung with strands of ancient disc-shaped shell beads, giving the sculpture an unusually immediate sense of personal adornment. Portrait head vessels belong to one of the rarest categories of Mississippian ceramic sculpture and are particularly associated with the mound-building cultures of the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys.

Farther west, Lot 292, an Ancestral Puebloan Tularosa Black-on-White bird effigy vessel, estimated at $1,500–$2,250, transforms a functional container into the form of a bird. Dating to approximately 1100–1250 CE, the hand-coiled vessel has a rounded body tapering toward a tail, while a short neck rises into a head with a hooked beak and concentric-circle eyes. Mineral-black designs — including hatched bands, stepped frets, triangles and parallel-line fields — move across the white-slipped surface. An opening at the top allowed the vessel to function as a container, perhaps for seed or water, while its avian form connects it with a broader visual world in which birds carried associations with movement, water and the directional landscape.


Woodland Steatite Human Effigy Pipe, ex-Museum. Estimate: $4,000 - $6,000

A very different relationship between sculpture and ritual can be seen in Lot 306, a Woodland-period steatite human effigy pipe, estimated at $4,000–$6,000. Carved from brown soapstone, the figure sits with knees raised and arms wrapped around the broad pipe bowl positioned between its legs. Deep-set eyes, a flattened nose, carefully defined fingers and toes and a hunched posture give the small sculpture considerable personality. The hollowed bowl and surviving stem channel show that it was not simply a figurine but a functional pipe, linking sculpture with ceremonial and social uses of tobacco. Its provenance is particularly notable: the object formerly belonged to the Evergreen Museum and Library at Johns Hopkins University and later passed through Parke-Bernet and Skinner.

The sale then makes a dramatic chronological leap into deep time with Lot 316, a monumental fossil skull and mandible of Stegodon from Java, estimated at $30,000–$40,000. Dating from the Pleistocene, roughly 1 to 2 million years ago, the skull belonged to an extinct proboscidean related to the evolutionary world of elephants and mammoths. Its massive cranium is paired with forward-projecting tusks that run almost parallel to one another, while plate-ridged molars remain visible in their sockets. Measuring approximately 52 inches across with the tusks, the mounted specimen gives the sale one of its most imposing presences and provides a physical encounter with a giant mammal that once inhabited prehistoric Java.


Dinocrocuta "Terrible Hyena" Fossil Skull, Central Asia. Estimate: $30,000 - $45,000

Even more formidable is Lot 317, a fossilized skull of Dinocrocuta, the so-called “terrible hyena”, estimated at $30,000–$45,000. The large carnivore roamed Central Asia during the Miocene around 10 million years ago and could reach an estimated body weight comparable to that of a black bear. The skull measures about 16 inches long, with massive jaws and canine teeth approaching two inches in length. Although its name evokes modern hyenas, Dinocrocuta belonged to a distinct family of powerful bone-crushing carnivores. The open-jawed presentation on a custom stand makes the animal’s predatory equipment — especially the heavy teeth and robust jaw — the focal point of the specimen.

The ancient oceans are represented by Lot 319, the fossil skull of a juvenile mosasaur, estimated at $6,000–$8,000. Mosasaurs were among the dominant marine predators of the Late Cretaceous, equipped with streamlined bodies, paddle-like limbs and powerful jaws for hunting fish, sharks and other marine animals. This approximately 9.5-inch-long skull preserves the dramatic dentition that made the group so effective in the warm seas covering large portions of the globe during the final chapter of the age of dinosaurs. The specimen has been professionally prepared and mounted for display.


Tyrannosaurus Rex Foot Claw Fossil, Late Cretaceous. Estimate: $6,000 - $9,000.

Few fossils carry the instant recognition of Lot 320, a Tyrannosaurus rex foot claw from the Hell Creek Formation, estimated at $6,000–$9,000. Discovered in Harding County, South Dakota, and dating to roughly 65.5–68 million years ago, the sharply curved claw measures approximately 9.5 inches along its outer curve. T. rex walked on three principal clawed toes, with a smaller rear digit positioned higher on the leg; this specimen is believed to derive from one of the primary toes. Original fossil material survives in the internal core and root, with restoration used to complete the claw’s overall form.

The story moves beyond Earth itself with Lot 324, an uncut 29.2-pound Campo del Cielo meteorite from Argentina, estimated at $18,000–$27,000. Composed principally of iron and nickel, the rugged specimen comes from one of the world’s best-known meteorite strewn fields, where fragments of a large extraterrestrial body struck the landscape and created a group of impact craters. This example measures approximately eight inches across and has been examined by XRF elemental analysis, with its composition found to be consistent with meteorites from the Campo del Cielo fall. In an auction already spanning centuries of human creativity and millions of years of biological history, the meteorite extends the narrative still farther — beyond archaeology and paleontology to material that originated outside the planet.

Taken together, the selection creates an unusual conversation between cultural history and natural history. The Native American works preserve evidence of highly developed technologies in clay, stone, shell and plant fiber, as well as systems of belief, ceremony, trade and community identity. The fossils, by contrast, compress vast geological intervals into tangible remains: giant mammals, marine predators and dinosaurs whose worlds disappeared long before recorded history. The meteorite pushes the scale farther still, reminding viewers that even the deepest terrestrial past forms only one chapter in a much larger cosmic chronology.

The Artemis Fine Arts and Arte Primitivo Day 1: Pre-Columbian, Native American, Fossils auction will take place September 15, 2026, beginning at 11 a.m. EDT in Louisville, Colorado.