Seldom does an artwork hit the block possessing all the ingredients for record-breaking success. But the pair of 19th-century wooden Senufo rhythm pounders—male and female ancestral figures from the Ivory Coast—that Sotheby’s is offering on November 14 is one such paragon. Estimated at $3 million to $5 million, the lot is the star of the sale of African and Oceanic art from the collection of Frieda and Milton Rosenthal. Rosenthal, a former chairman of the chemical giant Engelhard Corporation, bought the pair in 1967 at Parke Bernet, where they had been consigned by Nelson Rockefeller, a cofounder of New York’s short-lived Museum of Primitive Art. So rare to the market are many of the Rosenthal treasures—another example is an ancestral Sawos malu (ceremonial board) from the east Sepik River region in New Guinea (est. $600–900,000)—that the sale is being billed as the most important in its category in New York since Sotheby’s sold the legendary Helena Rubenstein collection 40 years ago.

"A Rare Few" originally appeared in the November 2008 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's November 2008 Table of Contents.