On Friday February 1, 2008 the gates of the African art section and the new permanent exposition „Afrika“ of the Völkerkunde Museum Leipzig at the Grassi-Museum will be reopened again. The curators Dr. Christine Seige and Giselher Blesse decided to show important art objects in the new permanent exhibition. Among them are the Karl Weule collection of Makonde masks and the world famous pieces “nkisi” magic figures that were collected by Robert Visser on the Congo coast area. Many pieces are the first time on display sinse decades. The reinstallation also shows the south African objects of Hofrath Dr. Klemm, that were collected before 1869 and many pieces collected by Leo Frobenius from western Africa. A true masterpiece of the collection is a famous master of the Buli chair from the Luba people, which can be counted among the finest known examples. The ancient Benin collection of Hans Meyer and artefacts of the different ethnic groups of Cameroon will be on display. The visitor will be confronted with the past and the present of the African art collection, its history and may discover many early published pieces which had a deep impact on the reception of African art in Germany.

Open: Thursday to Sunday 10 am - 6 pm; entrance fee for the permanent exposition: 4 € / reduced fee 2 €

contact: Ute Uhlemann, public relations
GRASSI Museum für Völkerkunde zu Leipzig; Johannisplatz 5-11, 04103 Leipzig
mvl-grassimuseum@ses.smwk.sachsen.de;
phone: +49 341 9731-916; fax: +49 341 9731-909