Among the lots from other owners, one very successful African piece was a Fang-Betsi reliquary head from Gabon, which had been in same collection since 1935. Many bidders competed for it before it sold over the telephone to an American institution for $505,600 (est. $200–300,000). New York dealer Ron Nasser was the underbidder.

Top examples of Pre-Columbian art sold well. The star was a Nayarit seated couple depicted in a wealth of detail. The pair had been in an American collection since 1968 and were shown in the “Before Cortes: Sculpture of Middle America” exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1970–71. “In terms of quality, provenance, and condition,” said Stacy Goodman, senior consultant in Pre-Columbian art at Sotheby’s, “it was the most important Mexican couple that we have offered in many years.”

A rare Veracruz head with cutaway masks, which portrays the life cycle from youth to death, sold to a European collector bidding over the telephone for $134,500 (est. $20–30,000). Pieces from the collection of Morton and Estelle Sosland, of Kansas City, Mo., sold high, among them a rare ceramic Zapotec effigy vessel (circa 200 B.C.E. – 250 C.E.), which went to the Princeton University Art Museum for $92,500 (est. $40–60,000), and a Maya figure of a ballplayer, Jaina (circa 550–950 C.E.), which brought $98,500 (est. $20–40,000).

“Our various-owner sale was a small and strong selection of fresh material,” said Schweizer. “Some pieces had been off the market for a very long time, while others, such as those in the Friede collection, were never meant to come to market.” He added that “the sale had only one or two pieces consigned by dealers,” making it, like its morning counterpart, all the more unequaled.