Newsletter no. 20

Bernard de Grunne

Bernard de Grunne is a leading Belgian art dealer and expert in African, Oceanic, and Indonesian arts, who has been immersed in the world of tribal art for over 50 years. He opened his own gallery specializing in Tribal art in 1995, and quickly gain an international reputation for his carefully curated selection of objects, his thorough academic research, and his professionalism, making Bernard de Grunne one of the main players in the Tribal art market.

In addition to his work as an art expert and dealer, Bernard de Grunne, who is particularly interested in the cultural and historical contexts of these artworks, is known for his contribution to the understanding and promotion of these unique artistic traditions, having collaborated with numerous museums and cultural institutions to organize exhibitions and events, and having published a range of books and articles on the arts from Africa, Oceania, and Indonesia.

Galerie Monbrison

Founded by Alain de Monbrison in 1981, the Monbrison Gallery specialises in the ancient arts of Africa and Oceania. It maintains privileged links with the greatest European and American museums. Its clientele includes major European and American collectors and important private and public institutions.

Alain de Monbrison maintains close ties with a large number of European and American museums, including the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Smithsonian in Washington, the Detroit Institute of Art, the Barbier Mueller Museum in Geneva and the Royal Museum of Central Africa in Tervuren.

Finally, Alain de Monbrison was one of the leading experts at the André Breton, Vérité sale and the historic Michel Périnet collection, held at Christie’s Paris on 23 June 2021.

Lucas Ratton

Established in 2012 in the heart of the Saint Germain des Près district, the Galerie Lucas Ratton promotes Tribal Art. For Lucas Ratton, the passion for African Art has been passed down through his family heritage. His grandfather Maurice and his great-uncle Charles Ratton were both close to the avant-garde artists of the 1920s, from the surrealist André Breton to the great poet and art theorist Guillaume Apollinaire, and also to the brilliant inventor of cubism Pablo Picasso and Maurice de Vlaminck or André Derain. Pioneers of the African art market, they presented selected historical objects in their galleries, a level of demand perpetuated in his gallery by Lucas’s father, Philippe, and passed on to Lucas.

The gallery features objects from sub-Saharan Africa as well as works from Oceania and British Columbia. Today, Lucas has made a name for himself in the inner circle of tribal art experts, thanks in part to his participation in international fairs. For Lucas, it is also a question of continuing the family tradition of confrontation and dialogue between extra-European art and modern and contemporary art, and of collaborating with artists and museums to defend and present African art as an integral part of the world heritage of art history.

In September 2020, Galerie Lucas Ratton, which has been located at 33 rue de Seine for a decade, moved to a larger space at 11 rue Bonaparte!