Earlier this year, Mask 1980, a stunning work by the late Australian sculptor Joel Elenberg, sold for a record $384,000 at auctionagainst an estimate of $100,000-140,000, over six times the highest estimated price. Interest in Elenberg’s work has increased substantially in recent years due to the fact that he was not prolific (Elenberg died at the age of 32) and his work is tightly held and limited in supply.  Elenberg was inspired by African tribal art, as were many other artists, such as Pablo Picasso.

A relatively recent trend is that the kind of work that inspired these artists has taken off itself in the world market. The anonymous tribal artists may not yet be in Picasso's league but the value of these works at auction is steadily rising. At the top of the range, they are proving excellent investments.

For example, take the results of Sotheby's June 11 sale in Paris of African, Oceanic and Native American art. Sotheby's is the world leader in auctions of tribal art and sales from this auction totalled more than $12 million.

Top price in the first session was EUR 324,750 ($536,000) for a Tlingit face mask, part of the James Economos Collection of Eskimo and British Columbian art. The whole collection sold for EUR1,620,000. 

The second session, devoted to African and Oceanic art, featured a top price of EUR 1,296,750 for a late-15th or early 16th-century Sapi-Portuguese ivory salt cellar from Sierra Leone.

Of special interest in the Oceanic category was a Pentecost Island (part of Vanuatu) mask from Australia. Acquired by the Reverend Alexander Morton between 1887 and 1892, it was discovered by Sotheby's specialists in the reserves of the Orbost and District Historical Society Museum in Victoria. 

They were researching the provenance of a similar mask that sold in November 2006. The estimate for the mask was EUR60,000-90,000 - it sold for EUR127,750. No doubt other regional museums are checking their back rooms.

Australia is a particularly rich source for tribal art from Oceania and, given the recent Paris results, this could be the time to sell. Other good results from the Sotheby's auction included a Kanak (New Caledonia) figure originally acquired by Governor-General Joseph Guyon between 1924 and 1932. Estimated at only EUR30,000-50,000, it sold for EUR 696,750 after some frantic bidding among dealers.

These works are at the top end of the global market but there is also a healthy market in Australia, with much more modest prices. On the main street of Sydney's exclusive Double Bay is one of the few Australian shops to specialise in tribal art. At Guy Earl-Smith's Galerie Finn in Bay Street, ancient art from South-East Asia, India and the Pacific islands stares across the road at mannequins dressed in contemporary Paris fashions.

Prices start about $50 for masks from New Guinea that may be only 10 years old but are still made in the traditional manner. Prices increase for anything pre-1940 and rise sharply for objects from the 18th and 19th centuries. Included in the latest auction were a transitional shield, made from a flattened section of a 44-gallon drum, valued at $2500, and what was described as a "superb, ethnographic kava bowl" carved in the 19th century in Fiji, whose provenance included a period in the Auckland Museum. The bowl sold for $15,000 at the latest Galerie Finn auction.

There's a touch of irony in that these traditional works are now sold predominantly online (the next auction is on Sunday, August 10 2008 - see http://www.guyearlsmith.com.au  for details and online catalogue).

Jewellery, ceremonial headdresses and combs, carved canoe paddles and decorated weapons are included under the general label of international antiquities. Yet for many collectors, here is a chance to buy a work of art for considerably less than what you'd pay at a regular gallery.

Masks and statues are especially popular, usually bought as dramatic interior decorations. One Galerie Finn client has designed an office especially to accommodate his collection of tribal art. That flat piece of the 44-gallon drum, decorated by some unknown New Guinea artist circa 1950, would look particularly impressive on the wall of a modern Surry Hills or Richmond apartment.

Collectors of tribal art tend to be well-travelled professionals with a personal interest in ethnographic matters (National Geographic subscribers, one suspects). They tend to be male, as some women find these objects a little too creepy to share their personal space. In this case, the tribal collection can be relegated to the male section of the house, as they probably were in traditional cultures.

Guy Earl-Smith (see below) says that most of the items he sells have local provenance. At his April auction, one of the main sources was the private collection of Dr David S. Johnson, who visited New Guinea as a medical student then returned in the 1970s as a surgeon for the World Health Organisation. Some of the pieces were tokens of thanks from grateful patients.

MY COLLECTION

Guy Earl-Smith was born in India and grew up in Paris, Japan, England and Hong Kong, so it's hardly surprising that he became interested in the traditional art of many cultures. His mother and father were both collectors in this area.

After working as a stockbroker in London, Earl-Smith decided to follow his passion for antiquities by studying archaeology and anthropology in North America, completing his postgraduate studies at James Cook University in Australia.

After some field work, he became head of the tribal and Aboriginal art department of Lawson Auctioneers (now Lawson Menzies), then decided to start his own business.

"Collecting antiquities and tribal art has always been in my blood," he says. "As a child I grew up with the house full of beautiful works of art and sculpture from antiquity."

Much of this art he has kept, along with the occasional piece that he has accumulated along the way. There are some things you just can't bear to sell.