Background panel "urua" of a chief's ancestor altar ·  Nigeria, Benin · ID: 3032375

Description

heavy wood, greyish brown patina, carved with two stylized ram heads in flat relief, raised band ornaments with notches in the lower third, slightly dam., minor missing parts, cracks, traces of weathering;
panels like the present are extremely rare, they can be found only in shrines of high ranking “owo” and “Edo/Bini” (Benin Kingdom) chiefs.

The object Background panel “urua” of a chief’s ancestor altar with the object ID 3032375 was last part of the auction 68th tribal art auction at March 3, 2012 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house and had the lot number 354.

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