While the European trade claims that nothing old is coming out of Africa anymore and ‘cultural property protection laws’ are driving up the value of art with an ancient provenance, there is a small market of connoisseurs who can still pick out ancient art from the vast quantity of copies and replicas available locally. It is an exciting market in which astonishing and unknown items repeatedly turn up.

In the Garn collection, dating from around 1905 to 1920, ethnologists, who at that time were all men, described a legend about this type of commemorative head that goes something like this: In the 1910s, excavations were carried out for the first time, causing a sensation that the English claimed as their own, discovering it before anyone else, and so on. Similar to: Columbus discovering America and forgetting the Vikings and the Chinese, who had travelled to this continent long before him. The women who dominate anthropology today simply copy what is written in printed books because they believe that is the truth. Like many other stories, the gallery supplemented, corrected or refuted some of this. The type shown here has been known to Europeans since before 1910 and was probably cast for the Ife in Benin. However, this is still only a theory and remains in the realm of conjecture.

The Paul Garn collection, which was assembled between approximately 1905 and 1920, contained a head very similar to the one pictured here, accompanied by a text by Dorina Hecht that is intended to idealise someone's memory. Before the decision is made to conduct a laboratory examination, which costs the equivalent of two months' wages for a skilled worker in Togo, objects are visually examined taking many criteria into account. Slight damage to the underside of the neck initially looked as if it had been cast deliberately to simulate signs of ageing. This turned out to be a false assumption. Since the head was mounted on a pedestal and this lower part is not visible, it was already ignored in the 15th century.

There are details in the physiognomic elaboration that reveal copies. However, this head corresponds to the elaborations of old orders. A close examination of the patina also indicated that it was old, and a small hole under the left ear is a corrosion spot. This time, despite my doubts, my sole dealer, who makes the preliminary selection for me, was certain that the head must be old and gave the final push for an examination.

575 years is a delightful find.