NEW YORK— “The Sculptor’s Eye: African and Oceanic Art from the Renee and Chaim Gross Foundation” led off Sotheby’s day of tribal art sales on May 15. The foundation collection was amassed between the 1930s and 1960s by the sculptor Chaim Gross and his wife, Renee, a New York couple who were early collectors of African art. It is what Heinrich Schweizer, head of Sotheby’s New York department of African and Oceanic Art, calls “a time warp,” where nothing has been changed for decades.

“Gross viewed African art with the eyes of an artist,” says Schweizer, “not a connoisseur. He was fascinated by its technique and bought according to his personal taste, without being influenced by trends or fashion.”

The 81-lot sale exceeded its expectations, bringing in a total of $4,888,316 against an estimate of $3 million to $4.4 million. Sixty-five of the 81 lots sold, for a sold rate of 94.9 percent by value and 80.2 percent by lot. “We expected the sale to do well,” said Schweizer, “because the material was so fresh and the objects were of great rarity and quality.”

Mimi Gross, the daughter of the sculptor and current head of the foundation, said after the sale, “We had to sell pieces to continue our foundation. The money will go for really important things. We are pleased with the results.”

The session contained few surprises, as a handful of very important pieces were expected to make the sale, and did. The highlight was a Ngbaka male ancestor figure from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which sold to an anonymous collector for $1,258,000 (est. $400–600,000) — an auction record for Ngbaka sculpture. The piece was first exhibited in 1937 at the Brooklyn Museum’s exhibition “African Negro Art from the Collection of Frank Crowninshield,” and Gross bought it from Crowninshield sometime between 1940 and 1944. At Sotheby’s, six bidders competed for it.

Other top lots also performed well. A rare kneeling Senufo female figure, which Gross bought from New York dealer Merton D. Simpson before 1960, sold to a European collector bidding over the telephone for $758,500 (est. $250–350,000), while a Soninke hermaphrodite figure from Mali (circa 12th–15th century) made a record price for a Soninke figure when it sold to Belgian dealer Bernard de Grunne for $530,500 (est. $400–600,000).

A Kota-Shamaye reliquary figure went to Paris dealer Yann Ferrandin for $146,500 (est. $40–60,000). The figure has round shell eyes, a feature that seems to appeal to buyers: Another with similar eyes brought $96,000 (est. $40–60,000) in Sotheby’s May 2007 sale of the Saul and Marsha Stanhoff Collection.

In the afternoon, the house’s various owner sale of African, Oceanic and Pre-Columbian art fell slightly short of its high presale estimate, making $5.7 million against expectations of $4.3 million to $6.4 million. The auction’s 94 lots were presented in a new 6½-inch-square catalogue, a dinky format that seemed to belittle the importance of the session and annoy many in attendance, who would have to visit Sotheby’s Web site if they wished to read the notes on a lot.

The session included many important objects, including some from the famous collection of John Friede, an obsessive and brilliant buyer. Originally, the entire, roughly 4,000-piece Friede collection of Oceanic art was slated for the de Young Museum in San Francisco, but a lawsuit with his two brothers over the terms of their mother’s estate, as well as a debt of $25 million that he owes to Sotheby’s, has caused some pieces to be sold. Sotheby’s gained possession of 54 objects from the collection and subsequently offered seven in this sale, all but one of which sold, for a total of $2,393,500.

Chief among them was an Urama Iriwáke half-figure from the Papuan Gulf region of Papua New Guinea that went to a collector for $1,202,500 (est. upon request, reportedly in excess of $1 million). The price was the highest in the sale and a record for a sculpture from the region, but still below what Friede paid for it, sources say. Another standout, a large Torres Strait drum from Papua New Guinea, sold to an American collector for $698,500 (est. $300–500,000). Friede bought the piece at Christie’s Paris in 2006 for $1,030,971.