Artifacts head home

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The most valuable private collection of Canadian Aboriginal artifacts is coming home, but it will be scattered, with only one item returning to its place of origin while the bulk of it goes to the Art Gallery of Ontario.

The famed Dundas collection, a treasure of artifacts acquired from the Tsimshian village of Metlakatla, B.C. in the early 1860s, sold for more than $7 million, twice the predicted total, at the Sotheby's auction in New York on Oct. 5. Nearly half of the 60 lots were purchased by Ontario art dealer Don Ellis, mostly on behalf of two unnamed Canadian philanthropists and institutions.

Only one item was purchased by the B.C. partnership of the Royal British Columbia Museum of Victoria and the Museum of Northern B.C., located in Prince Rupert, which is about a 20-minute boat ride from Metlakatla village. The item is a carved wooden spoon bought for $21,000.

Prince Rupert museum director Susan Marsden said that even though the two B.C. institutions had pooled together more than $100,000 for the auction, the bidding was much higher than anticipated and they simply could not compete. Still, she was happy to have obtained the spoon, describing it as an "an excellent example of Tsimshian art and a culturally important piece" to be taking home.

Marsden had the support of Tsimshian leaders in her efforts, and she and Victoria museum representatives recently met with the Tsimshian to discuss the future of the spoon and other artifacts.

Allied Tsimshian Tribes spokesman James Bryant said the first meeting went well as the Victoria museum agreed that the Tsimshian should be the first to see it before it is put on display.

"It should be brought back to where it originally came from, so it can receive a proper blessing," he said.

Bryant said that the Tsimshian and two B.C. museums also plan to meet with the Ontario museum to see if the items it obtained can also be blessed at their place of origin before being put on public display.

It is believed that Ellis was purchasing most of the items for the Thomson family, one of the richest in Canada. Included in the items Ellis acquired was the crown jewel, a shaman's mask, picked up for nearly $2 million.

The collection was acquired by British missionary Robert Dundas from Metlakatla Chief Paul Legaic as part of the chief's conversion to Christianity.