Royal Palace, Benin;
probably looted as part of the British punitive expedition February 1897;
with William Downing Webster (1868–1913), Bicester, Great Britain;
Museum für Völkerkunde, Dresden, by 1919;
whence acquired, by exchange, by Everett Rassiga (1922–2003), New York, c.1970;
from whom bought by the Australian National Gallery, Canberra, April 1975
The collecting history of this work of art is partial. The National Gallery of Australia welcomes further information regarding its history of ownership.
W D Webster, Illustrated catalogue of Ethnographical Specimens, catalogue no.29 (1901), no.97 as ‘British Punitive Expedition under the command of Admiral Rawson’ (£10);
Felix von Luschan, Die Altertümer von Benin, Berlin and Leipzig:De Gruyter1919, fig. 577, p.386, illus. b&w as ‘Dresden 16 169, nach der Abb. 97 bei Webster 29 von 1901’;
Genesis of a Gallery, the Collection of the Australian National Gallery, Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service 1976, illus. col. [np] as ‘perhaps … 16th century’