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| This photograph taken on March 24, 2022, shows a “Ngil” mask of the Fang people of Gabon which is estimated at 300,000/400,000 euros and which will be auctioned on March 26, 2022, at the Montpellier auction house. Pascal GUYOT / AFP |
The rare wooden “Ngil” mask, used in
ceremonies by the Fang ethnic people of Gabon, smashed its estimate of
300,000-400,000 euros at the auction in the southern French city of
Montpellier.
“It’s a case of receiving stolen goods,” a
man describing himself as a member of the Gabonese community in Montpellier exclaimed
from the back of the auction room, surrounded by half a dozen compatriots.
“We’ll file a complaint. Our ancestors, my ancestors, from the Fang community, we will recover this object”, the protester added, describing the mask as a “colonial ill-gotten gain”.
Auctioneer Jean-Christophe Giuseppi poses next to a “Ngil” mask of the Fang people of Gabon which is estimated at 300,000/400,000 euros and which will be auctioned on March 26, 2022, at the Montpellier auction house, on March 24, 2022. Pascal GUYOT / AFP
Auctioneer Jean-Christophe Giuseppi said
the auction was “entirely legal”, as far as he was aware.
Accompanied by security guards, the
demonstrators left the auction hall calmly but continued their protest against
the sale of African works of art.
Saturday’s auction also included a
Congolese chair which sold for 44,000 euros.
With added costs and fees the total paid by
the successful bidder for the Fang mask was 5.25 million euros, close to a
record for such an item.
In 2006 a similar Fang mask brought in 2.09
million euros at a Paris auction.
AFP