MANILA (UPDATED) — A bulul or carved wooden figure from Ifugao fetched a 630,000 euros or some P36.1 million — at least double its estimated value — at a French auction on Friday (Manila time).

The bulul was among the items auctioned off from the collection of Béatrice and Patrick Caput, at a Paris event hosted by Christie’s, the world-renowned art and luxury business founded in 1766.

The sculpture’s estimated value, as shown on Christie’s auction page, was between 200,000 to 300,000 euros (P11.4 million to P17.2 million).

One of the factors that determines an item’s value in auctions is its provenance, or the history of its ownership or origin — explaining the bulul’s substantial price tag.

According to its Christie’s listing, the bulul’s earliest known owner in 1918 is William Gambuk Beyer. He is the son of Henrey Otley Beyer, regarded as the “Father of Philippine Anthropology.”

The bulul was then acquired by Alain Schoffel in Paris in 1970, and then by Béatrice and Patrick Caput also in the French capital in 1989.

In 2013, it was exhibited at Musée du Quai Branly - Jacques Chirac in Paris.

Christie’s appraisal of the bulul describes it as “a masterpiece of Ifugao art” which “dazzles by the universality of its form.”

“Thanks to its purified aspect, we can see as many possible links with the great statuary of the past as with that of the present. Notably, thanks to its intrinsic geometry, it is possible to evoke a kinship with some of the oldest anthropomorphic representations, such as certain plastic creations of the Neolithic or Cycladic art.

“At the same time, by reducing and simplifying the anthropomorphic representation as much as possible, the artist has created an abstract interpretation of the human figure, giving it a powerful serenity. In the case of this formidable sculpture, it is its great plastic quality and in particular its formal ambiguity - its archaism and its modernity - that convey an indisputable timelessness,” it said.

Bululs, sometimes called "rice gods," are carved sculptures from a single piece of wood used by Ifugaos in the Cordillera region to protect their rice fields.

They are also said to bring good luck.

According to artgallery.nsw.gov.au, bululs are "ritually consecrated" by coating with pig or chicken blood before taking up their function as guardians of rice crops.

Bululs' standing figures either feature their hands hanging beside their body or resting on their knees, the art gallery's website said.

The arms of the seated figures, meanwhile, are typically folded.

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