An Ife torso of an Oba, oxidised bronze. The most famous exemplare we know from the Wunmonije compound (early to mid 16th century), which is now in the British Museum. We don´t know how the age of the Wunmonije compound is veryfied. But if it is based on an unpublished scientific test, the enclosed sculpure has round about the same age. A comparison of the patina shows that the exemplare in the British Museum is probably "restored" in the 1960/70th, a time where many Ife and Benin bronzes got a "new" surface in Western Museums. So they don´t have their original conditions anymore.

TL Test Kotalla, 520 years +/- 18 percent, at the end of the photosequence,

Frank Willett: Ife. Metropole afrikanischer Kunst, Bergisch Gladbach 1967, S. 37.; Wunmonije Compound, Ife, Museum für Ife-Altertümer, Ekpo Eyo, Frank Willett: Kunstschätze aus Alt-Nigeria, Mainz 1983, S. 104 William B. FAGG: Bildwerke aus Nigeria, München 1963, S. 38 Elsy Leuzinger: Die Kunst von Schwarz-Afrika, Recklinghausen 1972, S. 145, (a selection); Wolfgang Jaenicke, Video, Taking samples to analyze Ife and Benin Bronzes by Ralf Kotalla; Wolfgang Jaenicke, Der blinde Fleck der Provenienzforschung: Die Gegenwart

This object can be visited during the auction in the Gallery Wolfgang Jaenicke. It will not be sent and can only be picked up. After the end of the auction, the highest bidder can have the object for further analysis by its own account without significantly affecting the object in its substance. For this analysis, the winner of the auction has a period of 14 days. The object is from an old African Collection. Restitution organizations and individuals who are intensively concerned with restitution issues were informed about the object. See also Cultural Property Protection Law (Kultur Gut Schutz Gesetz - KGSG).

7.000 - 8.000,- Euro

sold

A small guided tour of Ife and Benin bronzes

Height: 56 cm
Weight: 13 kg