Standing male figure · Côte d'Ivoire, Bété · ID: 3034730
Jean-Pierre Laprugne, Paris, France
Description
wood, matt black patina, columnar trunk and neck, supporting a small egg-shaped head, prominent navel, neck scarifications, glass pupils (missing on the right), rep. (breakage of both arms fixed with metal nails), slight traces of abrasion, wooden socle;
statues of the Bete are extremely rare and there is hardly anything known about their meaning. From fieldwork we only know, that they had pairs of big figures, kept in secret places, which should represent the founders of the settlement and the community. The custom to honour the primeval couple is known from a lot of farming tribes in Western Africa.
The object Standing male figure with the object ID 3034730 was last part of the auction 73rd tribal art auction at May 25, 2013 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house. The object with the lot number 176 achieved a sales price of EUR 1,800.
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