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



Many visitors to Canada will be exposed to Inuit art (Eskimo art) sculptures while touring the country. These are the stunning handmade sculptures sculpted from stone by the Inuit artists living in the northern Arctic areas of Canada. While in some of the major Canadian cities (Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa, and Quebec City) or other traveler areas popular with international visitors such as Banff, Inuit sculptures will be seen at numerous retail shops and displayed at some museums. Given that Inuit art has been getting increasingly more international direct exposure, individuals may be seeing this Canadian fine art type at museums and galleries located outside Canada too. As a result, it will be natural for lots of tourists and art collectors to choose that they wish to buy Inuit sculptures as nice mementos for their homes or as very distinct gifts for others. Presuming that the objective is to obtain an genuine piece of Inuit art instead of a low-cost traveler replica, the question occurs on how does one tell apart the real thing from the phonies?

It would be quite disappointing to bring home a piece just to learn later that it isn't really authentic and even made in Canada. If one is lucky enough to be taking a trip in the Canadian Arctic where the Inuit live and make their fantastic artwork, then it can be safely assumed that any Inuit art piece purchased from a regional northern store or straight from an Inuit carver would be genuine. One would have to be more careful in other places in Canada, particularly in traveler locations where all sorts of other Canadian souvenirs such as tee shirts, hockey jerseys, postcards, crucial chains, maple syrup, and other Native Canadian arts are sold.

The most safe places to shop for Inuit sculptures to guarantee authenticity are constantly the trustworthy galleries that concentrate on Canadian Inuit art and Eskimo art. A few of these galleries have ads in the city tour guide found in hotels.

Reliable Inuit art galleries are also listed in Inuit Art Quarterly magazine which is dedicated totally to Inuit art. When one strolls into these galleries, one will see that there will be just Inuit art and maybe Native art however none of the other normal tourist souvenirs such as postcards or tee shirts . The Inuit sculpture might be signed by the carver either in English or Inuit syllabics but not all genuine pieces are signed.

Some of these Inuit art galleries likewise have sites so you might go shopping and purchase authentic Inuit art sculpture from home anywhere in the world. In addition to these street retail specialized galleries, there are now respectable online galleries that also specialize in authentic Inuit art.

Some traveler stores do carry genuine Inuit art in addition to the other touristy mementos https://www.peekyou.com/kurt_karcher in order to cater to all kinds of travelers. When shopping at these Bonuses types of shops, it is possible to tell apart the real pieces from the recreations. Genuine Inuit sculpture is carved from stone and therefore needs to have some weight or mass to it. Stone is likewise cold to the touch. A reproduction 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 sometimes have a business name on it such as Wolf Originals or Boma and will never ever feature an artist's signature. An genuine Inuit sculpture is a one of a kind piece of artwork and nothing else on the store shelves will look exactly like it. If there are duplicates of a specific piece with exact details, the piece is not genuine. It is most likely not real if a piece looks too perfect in detail with absolute straight bottoms or sides. Obviously, if a piece features a sticker label suggesting that is was made in an Asian country, then it is obviously a fake. There will also be a big cost difference in between genuine pieces and the imitations.

This can be a real gray area to those unfamiliar with genuine Inuit art. If a seller claims that such as piece is authentic, ask to see the official Igloo tag that comes with it which will have information on the artist, area where it was made and the year it was carved. The genuine pieces with the accompanying official Igloo tags will constantly be the highest priced and go are generally kept in a different (perhaps even locked) shelf within the shop.


Given that Inuit art has actually been getting more and more global exposure, individuals may be seeing this Canadian fine art type at galleries and museums located outside Canada too. If one is fortunate enough to be taking a trip in the Canadian Arctic where the Inuit live and make their terrific art work, then it can be securely presumed that any Inuit art piece purchased from a regional northern shop or directly from an Inuit carver would be authentic. Respectable Inuit art galleries are likewise listed 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 however not all authentic pieces are signed. Some of these Inuit art galleries also have websites so you might go shopping and purchase authentic Inuit art sculpture from home anywhere in the world.

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