Pick of the fair: Bernard de Grunne


Male ancestor figure (detail; c. 1790), Sepik River region, New Guinea. Bernard de Grunne, around €1m

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Male ancestor figure (c. 1790) , Sepik River region, New Guinea

This exceptional piece was made by the Sawos people of the Middle Sepik River region of New Guinea. Such large totemic figures, were hung on cult houses and dwellings, to represent powerful, and not necessarily benign, ancestral forces.