Arts Arena invites as a guest speaker Jean Fritts, who joined Sotheby’s in 1992 and now is its Senior Director and International Chairman for African and Oceanic art.

Previously with the National Museum of African Art and the Smithsonian Institution, she is a highly respected scholar, but also a central figure in the market for African and Oceanic art. She has been directly involved in the sale of the most important single-owner African and Oceanic art collections and that have achieved the greatest number of record prices at auction. Sotheby’s sales of African and Oceanic art have quintupled since she joined.

These art objects, which inspired Picasso and many others, were valued for their ritual and sacred function. Through our Western mindset, ironically, they have been transformed into decorative commodities.

Reception to follow. Thank you for registering.