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

Many visitors to Canada will be exposed to Inuit art (Eskimo art) sculptures while touring the country. Given that Inuit art has been getting more and more international exposure, people may be seeing this Canadian great art kind at galleries and museums located outside Canada too. Assuming that the intent is to get an authentic piece of Inuit art rather than a cheap tourist replica, the question occurs on how does one inform apart the genuine thing from the phonies?

It would be quite frustrating to bring home a piece just to learn later that it isn't authentic or even made in Canada. If one is lucky enough to be traveling in the Canadian Arctic where the Inuit live and make their wonderful artwork, then it can be safely assumed that any Inuit art piece purchased from a local northern store or directly from an Inuit carver would be authentic. One would have to be more careful elsewhere in Canada, especially in tourist locations where all sorts of other Canadian keepsakes such as tee shirts, hockey jerseys, postcards, crucial chains, maple syrup, and other Native Canadian arts are offered.

The most safe locations to purchase Inuit sculptures to guarantee authenticity are always the trusted galleries that focus on Canadian Inuit art and Eskimo art. Some of these galleries have advertisements in the city tourist guides found in hotels.

Reliable Inuit art galleries are also noted in Inuit Art Quarterly publication which is devoted entirely to Inuit art. These galleries will typically be located in the downtown traveler areas of major cities. When one strolls into these galleries, one will see that there will be just Inuit art and perhaps Native art however none of the other usual tourist mementos such as postcards or tee shirts . These galleries will have only authentic Inuit art for sale as they do not handle replicas or phonies . Simply to be even much safer, make sure that the piece you have an interest in includes a Canadian government Igloo tag licensing that it was handmade by a Canadian Inuit artist. The Inuit sculpture may be signed by the carver either in English or Inuit syllabics however advice not all authentic pieces are signed. Be aware that an anonymous piece might still be indeed genuine.

Some of these Inuit art galleries likewise have websites so you could shop and purchase genuine Inuit art sculpture from home anywhere in the world. In addition to these street retail specialty galleries, there are now respectable online galleries that also specialize in genuine Inuit art.

Some traveler shops do carry genuine Inuit art along with the other touristy souvenirs in order to deal with all types of tourists. When shopping at these types of stores, it is possible to tell apart the real pieces from the reproductions. Authentic Inuit sculpture is carved from stone and therefore should have some weight or mass to it. Stone is also cold to the touch. A reproduction made of 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 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 absolutely nothing else on the shop shelves will look precisely like it. The piece is not genuine if there are duplicates of a certain piece with specific information. If a piece looks too best in detail with outright straight bottoms or sides, it is probably not real. Obviously, if a piece features a sticker label showing that is was made in an Asian nation, then it is certainly a phony. There will also be a huge price difference between genuine pieces and the replicas.

This can be a genuine gray area to those unfamiliar with genuine Inuit art. If a seller claims that such as piece is genuine, ask to see the official Igloo tag that comes with it which will have info on the artist, location where it was made and the year it was carved. The genuine pieces with the accompanying official Igloo tags will always be the highest priced and are typically kept in a separate ( maybe even locked) shelf within the store.


Given that Inuit art has been getting more and more worldwide direct exposure, people may be seeing this Canadian great art form at galleries and museums situated outside Canada too. 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 securely presumed that any Inuit art piece purchased from a local northern store or straight from an Inuit carver would be genuine. Respectable Inuit art galleries are likewise noted in Inuit Art Quarterly publication which is devoted entirely to Inuit art. The Inuit sculpture may be signed by the carver either in English or Inuit syllabics however not all genuine pieces are signed. Some of these Inuit art galleries likewise have sites so you could shop and buy authentic Inuit art sculpture from house anywhere in the world.