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Guardians against storms, ancestral figures charged with protecting harvests, weapons associated with authority, spirit spouses and objects intended to accompany the dead are among the works taking center stage in the Tribal, African and Asian section of Artemis Fine Arts and Arte Primitivo’s September 16 auction. Spanning Oceania, Africa and Asia, the selection offers a glimpse into societies in which sculpture and ritual objects frequently operated far beyond the realm of decoration, serving as intermediaries between communities, ancestors, the natural world and unseen spiritual forces. Nicobar Islands Kareau Seated Female Guardian Figure with Shell Eyes. Nicobar Islands, Bay of Bengal, ca. 1800–1930 CE. Estimate: $15,000–$20,000.

The sale is the second half of a two-day collaboration between Artemis Fine Arts and Arte Primitivo. The September 16 session brings together Egyptian, Greek, Roman and Near Eastern antiquities alongside a substantial group of Oceanic, African and Asian material, creating a broad survey of objects made for religious devotion, communal ceremony, protection, prestige and burial. Lot 652, a Ming Dynasty temple facade model with dougong brackets, estimated at $3,500–$5,500.

Authority assumes a more overtly martial form in Lot 511, an 18th-century Tongan apa'apai club, estimated at $2,000–$3,000. Measuring nearly 39 inches long, the hardwood weapon has a broad rhomboid head densely covered with incised geometric ornament, including chevrons, hatched lozenges and notched borders. The smoothness of the lower shaft speaks to repeated handling. Apa'apai were formidable two-handed weapons, but their scale, craftsmanship and elaborate surfaces also made them visible expressions of rank and status within Polynesian society.

Another closely associated expression of prestige and combat appears in Lot 509, a Maori whalebone kotiate paraoa with a tiki finial, estimated at $1,800–$2,500. The short hand weapon has the characteristic double-lobed profile of a kotiate, while its grip terminates in a carefully carved tiki head. Made from whale bone, a material of considerable value, such weapons could become treasured personal possessions and could pass through generations, acquiring histories and associations with the mana of their owners.

Ancestral presence becomes literal in Lot 513, a Maori tekoteko ancestral figure, dating to approximately 1850–1920 and estimated at $3,000–$4,500. Carved from hardwood, the standing figure is dominated by an enlarged head whose face is covered with incised moko patterns, with remnants of red pigment remaining in the carving. Tekoteko were associated with the architecture of Maori meeting houses, particularly the gables of the wharenui, where an ancestral figure could simultaneously proclaim genealogy, embody mana and watch over the community gathered below.

The idea of protection takes on an especially dramatic form in Lot 530, a tapuanu guardian mask from the Mortlock Islands, estimated at $3,000–$5,000. Nearly 30 inches high, the mask was carved from a single plank and reduces the human face to a striking geometric arrangement of angular brows, narrow eyes, a long faceted nose and a small mouth beneath a tiered headdress. Tapuanu masks were mounted on men's ceremonial houses and were understood as protectors against typhoons, an existential threat to low-lying island communities whose food supplies could be devastated by a single major storm.

A different kind of guardian appears in Lot 531, a 19th-century Ifugao bulul figure from the northern Philippines, estimated at $2,500–$3,500. The standing male ancestor, carved from a dense hardwood block, has a restrained geometry and a dark surface developed through age and handling. Bulul figures were intimately connected with rice cultivation. Consecrated through ritual and associated with granaries and agricultural ceremonies, they embodied ancestral or spiritual forces invoked to protect stored rice and ensure the continued fertility of the crop.

In the African section, Lot 552, a Baule seated female figure associated with the concept of the blolo bla, or spirit spouse, carries an estimate of $5,000–$8,000. Dating to about 1900–1960, the figure sits upright on a four-legged stool with carefully articulated fingers, an elaborate tiered coiffure and a dark lustrous surface produced through handling. In Baule belief, individuals could possess spouses in the invisible world, and sculpted representations could be commissioned to maintain a harmonious relationship with these spiritual counterparts. The figure's beauty, poise and carefully ordered appearance were therefore integral to its function rather than merely ornamental.

Performance, transformation and the powers of the bush come together in Lot 578, a Nuna or Bwa buffalo mask from Burkina Faso, estimated at $2,000–$3,500. Monumental crescent-shaped horns surround an oxpecker bird perched above the buffalo's forehead, while the surface is animated by bold geometric passages of black, white and red. Such masks appeared in ceremonial performances connected with initiation, funerary observances and encounters with the spiritual forces of the wilderness. The unusual combination of buffalo and bird also transforms a relationship observed in nature into a powerful sculptural image.

The Asian section reaches back more than two millennia with Lot 622, a Han Dynasty pottery Bactrian camel, estimated at $2,000–$3,500. Dating to approximately 202 BCE–220 CE, the red-clay camel stands alert with its neck raised and mouth open, a fringed blanket and openwork saddle spread across its back. Two sheep and two fish are suspended between the animal's humps, while traces of ancient pigment survive on the surface. Thermoluminescence testing returned an age of approximately 1,800 years, plus or minus 200 years. Camels became powerful symbols of the trade networks linking China with Central Asia and lands farther west during the Han period.