Verzamelgeschiedenis (toelichting)provenance 'Two arm cuffs (AM-178-1, AM-192-5) were bought from Willem Geyskens (1923-1989), Diest (Belgium) in 1968. Two years later, in 1970, a small bronze ‘oracle’ (AM-254-2), a terracotta memorial head (AM-254-3) were bought together with a bronze head (AM-254-1), discussed earlier. Geyskens lived in Diest, and later in Tessenderlo (both in Belgium), at the time of his interactions with the Afrika Museum. According to several auction house catalogues he collected objects in Nigeria ‘in situ’ when he worked there as ‘wood merchant’ (The Yale University Art Gallery 2020, Catawiki 2018). He sold more than 250 objects to the Afrika Museum. According to the online ‘African Heritage Research & Documentation Centre’, Geyskens ‘imported Tropical wood, but due to his good contacts in Nigeria he was able to bring out large quantities mainly of Yoruba art, a.o. most of the known Ogboni “bronzes”’ (African Heritage Documentation and Research Centre 2020). William Fagg, who commented on the oracle in August 1977 writes: ‘this could be an oracle of a relatively recent date, after the punitive expedition..’.'
(Excerpt from Provenance no. 2 'The Benin Collections at the National Museum of World Cultures' written by Rosalie Hans with Annette Schmidt, 26-01-2021).
Publicaties over het objectbibliography For more information about the provenance, see <a href="https://issuu.com/tropenmuseum/docs/2021_provenance_2__benin__e-book" target="_blank"> Provenance #2 – the Benin collections at the National Museum of World Cultures </a> (NB: Issuu uses cookies).