Flûte Putorino

No birth date, birth place, death date, or living status could be established for an individual named Flûte Putorino. No school, degree, or period of training could be documented either. What is documented, across the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Te Papa Tongarewa, and the National Museum of Australia, is a distinct category of object: the pūtōrino, a carved wooden flute, sometimes inlaid with pāua shell, built from two hollowed halves joined and bound, capable of producing two different registers depending on how it is played. These institutions date their examples anywhere from the 1700s to the early twentieth century and record the maker as unknown or unattributed. No source in the available research connects any of these objects, or the underlying craft tradition, to a single named artist called Flûte Putorino.

No named critic, in any major outlet, could be found commenting on an artist called Flûte Putorino, and no verbatim quotation could be sourced. What exists in the literature is curatorial and ethnographic commentary on the pūtōrino as an instrument type: its construction from two joined wooden halves, its association with the atua Hine Raukatauri in Māori tradition, and its continued use by contemporary taonga pūoro performers. None of that commentary is addressed to an individual artist, and it should not be read or cited as critical reception of one.

The one auction result that surfaces when searching this name is a "rediscovered Māori flute," reported at a hammer price of GBP 140,000, with a total near GBP 180,000 once premium is included. The available source does not name the auction house or give an exact sale date, and that figure comes from a single trade blog rather than a published auction-house result; the lot was not catalogued under any individual artist's name. Christie's has handled other pūtōrino lots, listed under titles such as "Flûte Maori, putorino," but the available listings do not show clear hammer prices, so no broader price history can be assembled with confidence. Any market figure associated with this slug should be treated as provisional and unverified rather than as a reliable auction record for a named artist.

Anyone encountering the name Flûte Putorino attached to a work for sale should treat it as a descriptive or object-type label rather than a signed artist attribution, and should ask the seller directly whether the lot is being presented as the work of a named individual or as an example of the traditional pūtōrino form. Authenticity is a live concern in this category: the Museum of Anthropology at UBC documents a "Maori" flute in its own holdings that was in fact made by the English forger James Little, a reminder that objects marketed under Māori instrument names are not always what they claim to be. Provenance should be checked directly with the auction house or museum of record, and no purchasing or valuation decision should rest on the single, unverified price figure cited above.