Dana Auctions of Princeton, N.J., will hold the first auction of the Parker and Neal Mola Collection on Saturday, May 16, offering 200 lots of hand-stitched mola panels from the Guna Yala comarca of Panama. The auction marks the first public dispersal of one of the most significant and best-documented private collections of mola textile art ever assembled in the United States. The collection was formed by Ann Parker and Avon Neal, co-authors of Molas: Folk Art of the Cuna Indians (Barre Publishing, 1977), the first definitive book on the mola tradition and still the standard reference in the field. Parker, a photographer, and Neal, a folklorist and writer, traveled repeatedly to the San Blas Islands across the 1960s and 1970s, collecting directly from Guna women and documenting the textile tradition for scholarly publication. Their book has been cited by the Smithsonian Institution, the William Benton Museum of Art at the University of Connecticut, and institutional collections worldwide. Collections of this provenance almost never come to market, said Dana Balsamo, proprietor of Dana Auctions. These are the panels Ann Parker and Avon Neal chose to keep for themselves while building the scholarship that defined the field. The breadth of iconography, the technical range, and the documentation behind every piece make this an extraordinary opportunity for collectors and institutions alike. The 200 lots span every major iconographic category Parker and Neal documented in their book, such as narrative and documentary panels, including a mola commemorating the Apollo moon landing, one depicting the Panama Canal, and another depicting a helicopter with passengers. There are political commemoratives commemorating the First Kunayala Congress (the foundational event of modern Guna political autonomy), a Canal Zone contact-era naval vessel, multiple campaign portraits, and a portrait of President Galindo. And also advertising and brand imagery, a category Parker and Neal were among the first to study. Other categories will be pop-culture panels, such as Topo Gigio, the Italian television mouse, Antonio Aguilar as Charro, and the Merlion of Singapore, and religious and syncretic imagery, cosmological and biblical syncretism, the temptation of Adam and Eve, commemorating Saint Francis of Assisi, dated 1962, and multiple Nativity and crucifixion panels. Others will be classic zoomorphic and mythic subjects, such as twin owls, paired hummingbirds, thunderbird-and-halibut mythic scenes, soulbird panels, caimans, and spirit figures; and botanical and geometric abstraction, labyrinths, stepped-meander grounds, and dense polychrome leaf-lattices. The May 16 sale will start at 11 a.m. EST, in person and simulcast online. A preview will be held Friday, May 15, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. No hidden reserves and shipping is available. Dana Auctions LLC is located at 3490 US-1 Suite 17B, Princeton, N.J. This will be part one of multiple planned sales from the Parker and Neal collection. Future sessions will be announced through Dana Auctions regular channels. To learn more, call 732-221-3560. About Dana Auctions Dana Auctions, based in Princeton, N.J., specializes in antique and vintage textiles, including quilts, lace, and ethnographic textiles. Founded by Dana Balsamo, an AQS Certified Appraiser, and having appeared on Antiques Roadshow, the firm is known for its expertise, transparency, and commitment to connecting important material culture with collectors worldwide. Dana Auctions holds Pennsylvania Auctioneer License AU006175 and Kentucky License 278800.