Tips on How to Purchase and Buy Genuine Canadian Inuit Art (Eskimo Art) Sculptures



Numerous 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 regions of Canada. While in some of the significant Canadian cities (Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa, and Quebec City) or other traveler areas popular with global visitors such as Banff, Inuit sculptures will be seen at various retail shops and showed at some museums. Given that Inuit art has been getting more and more worldwide direct exposure, individuals might be seeing this Canadian fine art form at galleries and museums situated outside Canada too. As a result, it will be natural for lots of tourists and art collectors to decide that they wish to buy Inuit sculptures as good keepsakes for their houses or as really distinct presents for others. Presuming that the objective is to get an genuine piece of Inuit art instead of a low-cost traveler replica, the concern develops on how does one differentiate the genuine thing from the fakes?

It would be pretty disappointing to bring home a piece just to learn later that it isn't genuine and even made in Canada. If one is lucky enough to be traveling in the Canadian Arctic where the Inuit live and make their terrific artwork, then it can be safely presumed that any Inuit art piece purchased from a local northern shop or directly from an Inuit carver would be genuine. One would need to be more careful in other places in Canada, specifically in tourist locations where all sorts of other Canadian mementos such as t-shirts, hockey jerseys, postcards, crucial chains, maple syrup, and other Native Canadian arts are sold.

The best locations to purchase Inuit sculptures to ensure credibility are always the trustworthy galleries that focus on Canadian Inuit art and Eskimo art. Some of these galleries have ads in the city tourist guides discovered in hotels.

Trusted Inuit art galleries are likewise noted in Inuit Art Quarterly publication which is devoted completely to Inuit art. When one walks into these galleries, one will see that there will be just Inuit art and possibly Native art however none of the other normal traveler souvenirs such as postcards or tee shirts . The Inuit sculpture might be signed by the carver either in English or Inuit syllabics however not all genuine pieces are signed.

A few of these Inuit art galleries likewise have sites so you might go shopping and buy authentic Inuit art sculpture from home throughout the world. In addition to these street retail specialized galleries, there are now reputable online galleries that also specialize in genuine Inuit art. Because of lower overheads, these online galleries are a good option for purchasing Inuit art given that the rates are normally lower than those you could try these out at street retail galleries. Obviously, like any other shopping on the internet, one must be careful so when dealing with an online gallery, ensure that their pieces also come with the main Igloo tags to make sure authenticity.

Some tourist shops do bring authentic Inuit art as well as the other touristy mementos in order to accommodate all kinds of travelers. When shopping at these kinds of stores, it is possible to differentiate the real pieces from the reproductions. Genuine Inuit sculpture is carved from stone and therefore needs to have some weight or mass to it. Stone is also cold to the touch. A recreation made of plastic or resin from a mold will be much lighter in weight and will not be cold to the touch. A recreation will sometimes have a business name on it such as Wolf Originals or Boma and will never ever include an artist's signature. An authentic Inuit sculpture is a one of a kind piece of art work and nothing else on the store racks will look exactly like it. If there are duplicates of a specific piece with precise details, the piece is not genuine. It is most likely not real if a piece looks too ideal in information with absolute straight bottoms or sides. Obviously, if a piece includes a sticker suggesting that is was made in an Asian visit homepage nation, then it is obviously a phony. There will likewise be a huge cost distinction between authentic pieces and the imitations.

Where it becomes more difficult to determine credibility are with the recreations that More Info are likewise made from stone. This can be a genuine gray area to those unfamiliar with authentic Inuit art. They do have mass and may even have some kind 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 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, location where it was made and the year it was carved. If the Igloo tag is not offered, carry on. The genuine pieces with the accompanying official Igloo tags will always be the highest priced and are typically kept in a separate (perhaps even locked) shelf within the store.


Given that Inuit art has been getting more and more international 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 safely assumed that any Inuit art piece bought from a regional northern store or straight from an Inuit carver would be authentic. Trusted Inuit art galleries are also noted in Inuit Art Quarterly magazine which is devoted entirely to Inuit art. 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 also have websites so you might shop and purchase authentic Inuit art sculpture from house anywhere in the world.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *