H x W x D: 29.2 × 14 × 5.1 cm (11 1/2 × 5 1/2 × 2 in.)
Type:
Sculpture
Geography:
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Date:
20th century
Description:
Carved wooden board in the form of a slightly bent trapezoid, with a carved raised ridge across front center and engraved chevrons with alternating fields of striation, divided by a carved double line, across the back. Multi-colored beads are attached across the front surface, with three further red beads attached to the back lower register; a conical metal insertion is at top.
Provenance:
Native Auction #95 (Jan 25 2020) lot 77, Brussels, Belgium; Stéphane Neirynck, Ottignes, Belgium, from 1980s; Belgian ex-colonial collection, by descent.
On 15 March 1971, the state of Zaire instated law 71-016 to protect cultural goods, including monuments, sites, and art production, declaring it illegal to export any object considered part of the cultural heritage of the state.
The object in question is a mid-century personal decorative item of low market value, and as such not an object of significant cultural patrimony. While of aesthetic value and general cultural interest, such memory boards are personal objects, and have been published and exhibited widely since at least the 1980s. Indeed, they are objects produced in multiples (and of types represented widely in museums, including in the country of origin), not unique to a given cultural site, and remain personally alienable.
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