Artcurial, in partnership with Lempertz, presents the Jean-Jacques Rotthier Collection of African and Oceanic Art.

Experts

Bernard de Grunne

Jean-Joris Visser

africa@lempertz.com

+32 2 514 05 86

Presented here in its entirety for the first time, Jean-Jacques Rotthier's collection reflects the profound appreciation this Belgian collector had for African art. Belgium has, indeed, a long tradition of curiosity towards non-European cultures. It began with Charles the Bold, who is said to have been the first collector to acquire, on the territory of present-day Belgium, a wooden idol that later found its way into the treasures of the Dukes of Burgundy. The inventory of the personal possessions of Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine, Governor of the Austrian Netherlands, who died in 1780, also records several Loango textiles. Another eighteenth-century inventory, that of the Prince of Ligne, likewise mentions Afro-Portuguese ivories.

Assembled from the 1970s onwards, this collection pays tribute to the discerning eye of a discreet and passionate collector. Regularly featured in major exhibitions through loans to major museums, it is revealed here for the first time in its full scope. Shaped by travels throughout Africa—from Ethiopia and Ghana to Mali, where Jean-Jacques Rotthier lived for a time—and enriched over decades through exchanges with leading specialists, it belongs to the tradition of the great private collections of the twentieth century.

This first instalment brings together a selection of works of remarkable quality and exceptional depth, offering an initial glimpse of the richness of the collection. The coherence of the works assembled by Jean-Jacques Rotthier reveals the discerning eye and collecting approach of this distinguished Belgian collector. Acquired predominantly in Belgium, most of the works originate from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The collection also reflects his interest in the Niger Valley in Mali, particularly the Djenné-Jeno and Bankoni traditions, as well as the Nok and Sokoto cultures of northern Nigeria.

Taken together, these works reflect the vision of a collector guided not by speculation or ostentation, but by curiosity, sensitivity, and a discerning eye. The Jean-Jacques Rotthier Collection thus echoes the words of Frans Olbrechts, who wrote: "to set out in search not of gold, nor ivory, nor ebony, nor radium, but of that which may one day bring Africa greater renown than all the mineral wealth concealed beneath its soil: its art and its artists."

Bernard de Grunne

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