Eighty works from the Durand-Barrère collection of West African sculpture, which has languished unseen in a corner of provincial France for nearly 50 years, are to be sold at Piasa, in Paris, on December 5.

The pieces were assembled in the 1950s in Dakar, Senegal, by an unnamed French schoolteacher and her husband, who settled in Pau, in southwestern France, where their trove has remained until now. It has been displayed only once—in the 1961 “Sculptures de l’Afrique Noire” at the Musée de Beaux-Arts Pau—with the exception of two déblés (rhythm pounders), lent to the 1964 “Senufo Sculpture from West Africa” show at New York’s now-defunct Museum of Primitive Art. One of these, a female figure from the Ivory Coast (est. €300–500,000; $400–679,000), is expected to lead the sale, which is collectively valued at €1.5 million to €2 million ($2–2.7 million). But the sale expert Alain de Monbrison feels that prices could go much higher, given the rarities on offer, which include Sowei Mende masks from Sierra Leone.  "Sight Unseen" originally appeared in the December 2008 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's December 2008 Table of Contents.