An Important Collection of Art from Africa and Oceania

A great collection is rarely the work of one generation. It is through the many intersections with collectors, dealers, scholars and auctioneers that items accumulate histories beyond their origins, telling stories of connoisseurship, discovery, and geography. 

Waddington’s is pleased to present An Important Collection of Art from Africa and Oceania offered online from August 21 – September 3, 2026. 

Entrusted to Waddington’s from a single collector, the significance of this collection is reflected in the quality of the works, which possess impeccable provenance, along with extensive exhibition and publication history. The provenance includes some of the premiere collections of their kind and emphasizes a lineage of outré visionary collectors—a characteristic that has become increasingly important in the successful market performance of art from Africa and Oceania.

Items in this auction were once owned by some of the most distinctive collectors of the 20th century, including Swiss collector Josef Mueller (Müller) and English collector James Thomas Hooper, alongside figures such as British painter Edward Wolfe, American collector Jay C. Leff, and scholar Frank Willett.

The late 1960s and 1970s were an important time for the appreciation of non-Western artforms. Two seminal moments included Christie’s 1977 auction of James Hooper’s collection of Hawaiian and Maori art, and Christie’s 1978 auction of African art from the collection of Joseph Muller. Both remain among the most important and widely recognized collections ever brought to market, their names continuing to carry significant appeal in the field to collectors and specialists alike.

Josef Mueller (Müller)

Josef Mueller (1887–1977) was a collector keen to follow his own path. He made a name for himself at just 19 years of age when he bought Ferdinand Hodler’s then-controversial painting Die Liebe, which had scandalized Zurich for its stylized depiction of intertwined nude figures. 

Remarkably independent of thought, Mueller did not collect in discrete categories, adding African sculpture, masks and other objects to his holdings of work by Cézanne, Kandinsky, Renoir and Bonnard. This eclectic collection, in the words of Werner Muensterberger, expressed the “ultimate indivisibility of authentic art.” Indeed, Mueller continued this strategy in their display as well, with photographs of his home showing paintings by Joan Miró hung alongside Bembe masks and clubs from the Marquesas Islands. For him, geography or chronology were less important than the interplay of form and imagination. 

Mueller visited Africa but once, travelling along the Ubangi River in 1923. He did not acquire any works on that trip, rather assembling his mighty collection from Parisian dealers, including Ernst Ascher, Charles Ratton, Antony Moris and Pierre Vérité. Post-war, Swiss dealer Emil Storrer became another trusted source. Mueller was meticulous, recording his purchases in small black notebooks, which have provided subsequent generations with a fulsome picture of his collecting practices.

Several objects in the present collection carry the Mueller provenance.

Among the most significant is a Fang Male Reliquary Figure, or eyema byeri. Carved in wood and distinguished by its metal eyes, the figure was formerly in Mueller’s collection in Solothurn and was sold at Christie’s London in the landmark 1978 auction, “African Art from the Collection of the late Josef Muller of Solothurn, Switzerland.”

An important chapter in Mueller’s story is the story of his daughter, Monique Barbier-Mueller, and her husband, Jean Paul Barbier-Mueller. The latter was already a collector in his own right when he met his future father-in-law, but was dazzled by the depth of the collection, noting: “I was fascinated by this unknown world, so diverse in its peculiarity. I didn’t know where to look first, Müller was a lover of paintings above all. The walls of his family home were covered from floor to ceiling with paintings, among which were hung carved Oceanic rods, masks and disconcerting ethnographic objects…”

After Mueller’s death in 1977, Jean Paul and Monique began expanding his collection with new works, with a focus on rare Oceanic and African works.

James Thomas Hooper

In contrast to Mueller’s eclecticism, James Thomas Hooper (1897–1971) collected with a specific focus, allowing him to assemble one of the legendary private collections of African, Oceanic, Inuit, and First Nations art. Based in Arundel, England, items that bear the Hooper provenance remain noteworthy decades after the dispersal of his collection.

His collecting journey began in 1912, when gifted a spear by his father. Working for the Thames Conservancy board gave Hooper the means to begin acquiring works from flea markets, antique shops, auction houses, dealers, and house sales. After retirement, he opened the Totems Museum in Arundel, and authored The Art of Primitive Peoples with Cottie Arthur Burland. Between 1976 and 1982, at least six auctions of Hooper’s collection were required to disperse his extensive holdings.

Several of the strongest African works in the present auction, passed through Hooper’s hands. Taken together, these works present a small but meaningful cross-section of a collection. 

Foremost among them is an imposing Yoruba Epa Helmet Mask, standing more than four feet high. Its history can be traced to the Church Missionary Society in 1935 before it entered Hooper’s collection.

It subsequently appeared in Christie’s 1976 auction, “African Art from the James Hooper Collection”, and has been attributed to the master carver Agbonbiofe, or another master of Efon-Alaye.

A Luba Female Caryatid Stool, dating to circa 1904, provides another particularly rich chain of ownership. The work was collected by Captain Fritz Crowe, British Consul General at Lourenço Marques, before entering Hooper’s collection, and appears to be the Caryatid stool visible to the right of Hooper in the iconic portrait of the collector, circa. 1958. 

A Passion for Collecting

Waddington’s has been entrusted with some of the most iconic and diverse collections this country has to offer. From our first auction of Inuit art in 1978, the William Eccles Collection, and numerous premier collections of Inuit and First Nations art, to the historic Canadian art collection of Sir Christopher and Lady Ondaatje, Charles Bronfman’s Claridge Collection, the eclectic collection of William (Billy) Jamieson, and the contents of Maple Leaf Gardens, we have worked with the most extraordinary collectors—and collections— for decades.

Contact us to discuss the future of your exceptional collection.

About the Auction

This significant collection from a prestigious Toronto collector is underscored by impeccable provenance, with items originating from noted collectors Josef Mueller, James Thomas Hooper, Jay C. Leff, Edward Wolfe, and Professor Frank Willett, as well as early missionary and field collectors.

Highlights include the James Thomas Hooper Yoruba Epa Helmet Mask attributed to Master Carver Agbonbiofe, a Fang Eyema Byeri Figure with mount by Kichizô Inagaki, and a Luba Caryatid Stool collected by Captain Fritz Crowe, which was subsequently pictured alongside James Hooper in an iconic portrait.

Bid online August 21 to September 3.

On view at our Toronto gallery:
Sunday, August 30 from 12 pm to 4 pm
Monday, August 31 from 10 am to 5 pm
Tuesday, September 1 from 10 am to 5 pm

Contact us for more information.