Tips on The Best Ways To Buy and Shop for Genuine Canadian Inuit Art (Eskimo Art) Sculptures



Many visitors to Canada will be exposed to Inuit art (Eskimo art) sculptures while visiting the country. These are the splendid handmade sculptures sculpted from stone by the Inuit artists living in the northern Arctic regions of Canada. While in a few of the significant Canadian cities (Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa, and Quebec City) or other tourist areas popular with international visitors such as Banff, Inuit sculptures will be seen at various retail stores and displayed at some museums. Given that Inuit art has been getting a growing number of worldwide exposure, individuals may be seeing this Canadian fine art kind at galleries and museums situated outside Canada too. As a result, it will be natural for lots of travelers and art collectors to decide that they would like to buy Inuit sculptures as great keepsakes for their homes or as extremely unique gifts for others. Assuming that the objective is to get an authentic piece of Inuit art rather than a low-cost traveler imitation, the question arises on how does one tell apart the genuine thing from the fakes?

It would be quite disappointing to bring home a piece just to find out later that it isn't really authentic or even made in Canada. If one is fortunate enough to be traveling in the Canadian Arctic where the Inuit live and make their fantastic artwork, then it can be safely presumed that any Inuit art piece purchased from a local northern store or straight from an Inuit carver would be genuine. One would have to be more careful in other places in Canada, especially in tourist areas where all sorts of other Canadian mementos such as t-shirts, hockey jerseys, postcards, key chains, maple syrup, and other Native Canadian arts are sold.

The most safe places to buy Inuit sculptures to ensure authenticity are always the respectable galleries that specialize in Canadian Inuit art and Eskimo art. Some of these galleries have advertisements in the city tour guide discovered in hotels.

Reliable Inuit art galleries are also noted in Inuit Art Quarterly magazine which is devoted entirely to Inuit art. When one walks into these galleries, one will see that there will be only Inuit art and perhaps Native art but none of the other typical tourist souvenirs such as tee shirts or postcards . The Inuit sculpture may be signed by the carver either in English or Inuit syllabics but not all authentic pieces are signed.

Some of these Inuit art galleries also have websites so you might go shopping and purchase genuine Inuit art sculpture from house throughout the world. In addition to these street retail specialty galleries, there are now credible online galleries that likewise concentrate on genuine Inuit art. These online galleries are a good option for purchasing Inuit art since the prices are typically lower than those at street retail galleries because of lower overheads. Naturally, like any other shopping on the internet, one must be careful so when handling an online gallery, ensure that their pieces also feature the main Igloo tags to ensure credibility.

Some traveler shops do bring authentic Inuit art as well as the other touristy mementos in order to cater to all kinds of tourists. When shopping at these types of shops, it is possible to tell apart the real pieces from the recreations. Authentic Inuit sculpture is carved from stone and for that reason must have some weight or mass to it. Stone is also cold to the touch. A recreation made from plastic or resin from a mold will be much lighter in weight and will not be cold to the touch. A reproduction will often have a company name on it such as Wolf Originals or Boma and will never ever feature an artist's signature. An authentic Inuit sculpture is a Kurt Criter Denver one of a kind piece of art work and nothing else on the shop racks will look exactly like it. If there are duplicates of a particular piece with precise information, the piece is not authentic. It is most likely not genuine if a piece looks too ideal in information with absolute straight bottoms or sides. Naturally, if a piece features a sticker label showing that is was made in an Asian country, then it is certainly a phony. There will also be a substantial price difference between genuine pieces and the imitations.

Where it becomes harder to figure out authenticity are with the recreations that are also made from stone. This can be a real gray area to those not familiar with genuine Inuit art. They do have mass and may even have some type of tag showing that it was handcrafted but if there are other pieces on the shelves that look too similar in detail, they are more than likely not authentic. If a seller declares that such as piece is genuine, ask to see the official Igloo tag that comes with it which will have information on the artist, location where it was made and the year it was sculpted. Move on if the Igloo tag is not offered. The authentic pieces with the accompanying official Igloo tags will constantly be the greatest priced and are generally kept in a different (perhaps even locked) shelf within the shop.


Since Inuit art has actually been getting more and more worldwide exposure, individuals may be seeing this Canadian great art form at galleries and museums situated outside Canada too. If one is lucky enough to be traveling in the Canadian Arctic where the Inuit live and make their terrific art work, then it can be safely assumed that any Inuit art piece acquired from a regional northern store or directly from an Inuit carver would be genuine. Respectable Inuit art galleries are also noted in Inuit Art Quarterly magazine which is dedicated completely to Inuit art. The Inuit sculpture might be signed by the carver either in English or Inuit syllabics but not all authentic pieces are signed. Some of these Inuit art galleries also have sites so you could go shopping and buy authentic Inuit art sculpture from house anywhere in the world.

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