Oceania

Excellent example of PNG art

Sepik River Mask
Sepik River Mask

Q:  I bought this Mask and I would like to know where it came from. It is 31 inches long I bought it from a friend who inherited it for $100.
I will send the back picture in a minute.Thank you.  Jean, 658

A:  You lucked into a nice example of an ancestor spirit mask from one of the tribes living in the Sepik River area of Papua New Guinea. These are sometimes dance but spend most of their time on the walls of the men’s large house. It looks authentic, but I’m not sure of age. This area (as well as remote parts of the Amazon basin) is one of the last places in the world were masks carved with stone and bone tools were still being found in the 1970’s. Yours is not that old, but it might be authentic and much more desirable than a tourist mask.  A?

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