Photo: Carving nets record price By Special TO Nunatsiaq News November 6, 2012
The Migration, a carving made in the 1970s by the late Joe Talirunili of Puvirnituq, was the highlight of Waddingtons’s Nov. 5 Inuit art auction in Toronto, selling for $290,000, higher than the $278,000 which similar carving netted in a 2006 Waddingtons’ auction. The auction price for the privately-owned carving marks a new world record for a piece of Inuit art at auction, Waddingtons said. The Migration recounts the harrowing journey of the artist and other survivors on a crowded, hastily constructed umiak, as they paddled to reach safety. “In this small boat the people are cramped together as they want to live – always to face death,” Talirunili once said. Works by other artists, including Judas Ullulaq, Ennutsiak, Karoo Ashevak, Josiah Nuilaalik, Pauta Saila, and Jessie Oonark, also fetched bids at the high end or exceeding their estimates. Total for the Nov. 5 auction reached more than $770,000. A rare white stone polar bear by Pauta Saila sold for more than $20,000. (IMAGE COURTESY OF WADDINGTONS)