Best Photos of the Day

Artemis Fine Arts and Arte Primitivo present a two-day joint auction in Louisville, Colorado, uniting decades of combined expertise and connoisseurship in ethnographic and ancient art. Commencing on September 15, 2026, Day 1 of the sale highlights an exceptional selection of Pre-Columbian artifacts, Native American works, and rare fossils curated by industry principals Bob Dodge and Howard Rose. The event offers collectors, institutions, and enthusiasts a premier opportunity to acquire museum-quality pieces backed by rigorous standards of authenticity and provenance. Costa Rica Bat Deity Jade Pendant, Crocodile Wings. Estimate: $2,500 - $3,500.

Moche Wood Fox Spoon, Lime or Medicine Spoon. Pre-Columbian, Peru, North Coast, Moche. A fox stands watchful along the shaft of this small carved wood implement, its long tapering tail drawn out to serve as the handle and its jaws clamped around the rim of an integral oval bowl. Estimate: $2,000 - $2,500.

Lambayeque Sican Gold Face Set, Sewn Textile Regalia, Crowned Visage. Pre-Columbian, Peru, North Coast, Lambayeque (Sican). A matched set of seven miniature sheet-metal appliques, each hammered in repousse with the frontal face of a crowned lord. The trapezoidal plaques rise to a combed headdress band above an arc of raised bosses, framing almond eyes with drilled pupils, a wedge nose, and a broad open mouth; angled flanges at the cheeks read as flaring ear ornaments. Estimate: $2,500 - $3,500.

Costa Rican Stone Mano | Jaguar Head Ends, ex-Merrin. Pre-Columbian, Costa Rica. A long baton of gray volcanic stone, pecked and abraded into a slender cylinder and finished at each end with a stylized jaguar head worked in low relief, the muzzles blunt, the ears and brows reduced to raised nubs. Paired with a metate, such a mano ground maize and other foodstuffs, its underside worn smooth and flattened by generations of that labor. Estimate: $2,500 - $3,500.

Maya Polychrome Plate, Deity Head, Kill Hole. Pre-Columbian, Mexico or Guatemala, Maya. A broad earthenware plate with steeply flaring walls, slipped cream and painted in red, orange, and black. The central roundel holds a profile deity head in three-quarter scale: fanged mouth, scrolled snout, dotted cheek, and a sweeping feathered headdress rendered in fine dark line. Estimate: $2,500 - $3,500.

Maya Polychrome Bowl, Deities with Offering Bundles. Pre-Columbian, Guatemala, Maya. A deep, round-sided ceramic bowl painted in orange, red, cream, and black slips over a burnished buff ground. Two standing deities face one another around the circumference, each robed in a beaded and paneled costume, and each trailed by an enormous knotted offering bundle whose tasseled cords and cross-hatched medallions fill the surrounding field. Estimate: $2,500 - $3,500.

Maya Stucco Head of a Dignitary with Red Pigment. Pre-Columbian, Mexico, Maya. A modeled stucco face of a dignitary, rendered with the individualized naturalism the Maya reserved for rulers and court elites. The narrow aquiline nose projects sharply, the full lips part as if caught mid-speech, and the heavy lids droop over almond eyes outlined in dark pigment. Estimate: $2,500 - $3,500.

Rare Miniature Tlatilco Janus-Faced Acrobat Whistle. Pre-Columbian, Mexico, Tlatilco. A miniature buff-tan pottery whistle in the form of an acrobat, arms flung wide and legs thrown simultaneously forward and back in a contortionist's split. The head is janus-formed, two faces sharing one skull beneath a finely incised close-fitting coiffure, the features crisply modeled with heavy lidded eyes and full lips. Estimate: $2,500 - $3,000.

Costa Rican Jade Axe-God Anthropomorphic Celt Pendant. Pre-Columbian, Costa Rica. A slender celt of semi-translucent blue-green jade carved into a standing human figure. The polished blade tapers to a rounded bit below a belted waist, while above it a compact torso raises both hands over the stomach, fingers rendered in fine incision. The face is minimal and arresting: drilled round eyes, an angular nose in low relief, a wide banded mouth. Estimate: $1,500 - $1,800.

Moche IV Stirrup Vessel | Seated Dignitary, Mustache and Goatee. Pre-Columbian, Peru, Moche. A seated dignitary sits heavy and alert atop a burnished cream ceramic chamber, hands resting flat on his knees, head thrust forward as though addressing someone just out of reach. Slip-painted decoration in red-brown carries a zigzag-banded turban, a broad diagonal sash across the torso, painted brows, mustache and goatee, and paired discs at the corners of the mouth. Modeled ears carry cylindrical spools. Estimate: $2,000 - $3,000.