The Collection of Ken Mantel

Ken Mantel was born in 1950 in London, England. He began his career as a petroleum geologist in 1975, which took him to Arctic Canada in the 1970s. It was in the Arctic that he became fascinated by, and started to collect Inuit Art, in common with so many of the earlier collectors who travelled to the north. In Ken’s case, the link from science to art was undoubtedly the raw medium and its evolution into dramatic sculpture.

On returning to Britain in 1981 Ken opened the Narwhal Inuit Art Gallery, alongside his wife, Tija. As collectors turned slowly to gallery owners instead of their annual trips to Toronto, to buy from the major co-ops and auction houses, in 1999 the Mantels also established NIAEF (Narwhal Inuit Art Education Foundation) as a registered charity to help raise awareness of the Inuit through their art.

Ken Mantel was regarded as the British authority on the subject of Inuit art and the gallery stood in a unique position as the only one of its kind in the country. Following his early papers, newspaper articles, art publications, public talks and discussions, etc, Ken’s knowledge and passion for the artform culminated in ‘Tuvaq’, the first British-led book on the subject.

It is with great fondness that Tija and her children, Sasha, Tanja and Misha now repatriate this collection to continue Ken’s legacy, as another chapter in the history of Inuit Art in Britain.

– Tija, Sasha, Tanja and Misha Mantel

It has been a privilege and a pleasure to have known and met many of the characters who have helped to shape the history of Inuit art, mostly in Canada but also in the USA, Europe and of course my homeland Britain.

– Ken Mantel, 1950-2024

About the auction