Lot: 463

88th Tribal Art Auction

Standing male figure

D. R. Congo, Suku

Provenance Size Starting price / estimated price
Cheveau, Brussels, Belgium
Maria Wyss, Basel, Switzerland
Max Itzikovitz, Paris, France
Ruth & Marc Franklin, San Francisco, USA
Pace Gallery, New York, USA (Inventory No. 54-2832)
Alain Naoum, Brussels, Belgium
H: 20.7 inch This object is not available anymore.

wood, brown patina, remains of red paint, the face dominated by small slit eyes and voluminous cheeks, delicate coiffure with raised middle ridge, dam., missing parts, traces of insect caused damage and abrasion, cracks, base.
There were possibly paraphernalias added to the figure, which is presumably a magical figure "phuungu". These figures served as containers for protective magical power exercised by the experts against illness, to avenge sorcery and for supernatural assistance in hunting.


Alain Naoum, Brussels, Belgium
Bourgeois, Arthur P., Art of the Yaka and Suku, Paris 1984, p. 230 f., ill. 218 Utotombo - L'Art d'Afrique noire dans les collections privées belges, Brussels 1988, p. 211, ill. 173

YALE: 0062522