Myron Kunin (1928 – 2013) dedicated his life to beauty, both as a businessman and art collector. A modest, self-made man, he transformed his family’s small business in Minnesota into a global empire encompassing more than 10,000 hair salons worldwide and numerous brands from Supercuts to Vidal Sassoon and Jean-Louis David.

Focusing on major works of outstanding quality, Kunin amassed one of the finest private collections of African Art in the world.  The collection includes masterpieces from all regions of sub-Saharan Africa, and is particularly strong in works of great refinement and classical beauty originating from Ivory Coast, Gabon, and the Congo.

One of the highlights of the group is Kunin’s Senufo Female Statue (deble) from Ivory Coast, which belongs to an exceptionally rare style of which only five other examples are known.  Reducing the female body to basic cubist forms and blending movement with sculpture, it is one of the quintessential masterpieces of African abstraction. Appealing to a universal aesthetic, it has been widely published and exhibited throughout the past century, including in Primitivism in 20th Century Art, held at the Museum of Modern Art in 1984, and Visual Encounters, held at the Beyeler Foundation in 2009. The Kunin Senufo Female Statue is one of the most iconic works of African art ever to come to market.