Reliquary guardian figure "mbulu" or "mwete" ·  Gabon, Kota · ID: 3034369

Description

wood, metal sheet and tags, enlivened by metal plating from various materials, typical sickle-shaped coiffure and projections on both sides, the neck merging into a diamond-shaped handle, min. dam., fine cracks, small missing parts, wooden socle;
the Kota used to fix these stylized head sculptures on top of boxes containing the skulls and bones of important ancestors. They should protect the valuable contents. Housed on a shelf outside the village, the figure was carefully polished with sand to maintain its shining surface which should keep sorcerers away.

The object Reliquary guardian figure “mbulu” or “mwete” with the object ID 3034369 was last part of the auction 72nd tribal art auction at March 9, 2013 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house. The object with the lot number 405 achieved a sales price of EUR 10,000.

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Expertise

Alain de Monbrison, Paris, 25. April 2012