Specifications

• Height: 51,5 cm
• Material: wood, glass beads
• Position: squatting
• Gender: male
• Indigenous name: korwar
• Price realised: € 4.465,- (Christie’s 2001); Sotheby’s € 11.970,-

Provenance

Loed van Bussel, The Hague; Herbert Juan da Silva, The Hague; Christie’s, Amsterdam 11-12-2001, lot 147; Private collection, The Hague; Sotheby’s, Paris 4-12-2020, lot 99.

Publications

Rossel, Siebe & Arnold Wentholt (eds.)(2008), Tribal Treasures in Dutch Private Collections, 137.

ref.: Corbey, Raymond (2019), Korwar, Northwest New Guinea ritual art, 188-89, fig 157

Additional information

An exceptionally large ancestor seated on and crowned by snakes. Details are partly blackened showing contrast. The back is decorated with a tattoo, which is partially faded. tattoos played an important role in the intiation rites, because they were proof that those with a tattoo had reached the stage of adulthood. In combination with the diminuative or subordinate figure this statue may have had a function within the initiation rites.

For a figure possibly hailing from the same area, see Corbey.

Photo credits

Ben Grishaaver, Leiden