Part 1 of a series looking at a carving lent to me by a friend – what is it, where did it come from and what should we do with it?

Read more about it here - http://www.lootandplunder.net/2016/11/06/two-beginnings/

This story has two beginnings.

First the functional one. I am a student – studying for a Postgraduate Certificate in Antiquities Trafficking and Art Crime at Glasgow University. My next assignment is to produce a “digital artefact” related to the course. A “digital artefact”, it turns out, can be lots of things. The university handbook says it should be something that I can share online and suggests an interactive timeline, a pamphlet, an op-ed or a virtual exhibition. As I am already writing this blog, and have always fancied working out how to do a podcast, I thought I would set up a section that kind of merged the two. Blog entries with occassional bits of audio when I interviewed someone or heard something interesting. But what to cover?

This is the second beginning. I was sitting in a friend’s study in London and saw a vaguely familiar doll-like figure on her bookshelf. It was made of dulled brown wood, about 10 inches tall, a flat, circular face with small eyes, nose and mouth standing out in relief. There was a pattern carved on the back – plaited hair perhaps – and the whole head was balanced on a stick-thin body.

A month or so later I was back and something had happened. The doll had fallen over and broken at the neck. There was just the head left on the shelf.

So there it was – an object that had come from somewhere else and had ended up here, far away from its home. On first appearances – based on a totally inexpert look at its finish and wear – it had been made some time ago. Its more recent history was also vague. My friend said she had bought it for about $100 (about $210 today according to the U.S. Inflation Calculator) from a New York art dealer in the late 1980s and brought it home. She thought it was from the Ashanti area of modern-day Ghana. But without the actual papers to hand, that was pretty much it for the provenance.

What better start for an investigation into an artefact? A wooden artefact that I can now turn into a digital one. I have got no idea whether it is “real” or “fake”, if it was trafficked or if it passed through all the proper channels. My friend has, very generously, said I can try and find out.

I thought I would have a go at reporting on this in real time – Serial-style – as I try and find out all that and more. It would be great if anyone wanted to listen in, particularly if they could suggest any avenues of research.

Thanks,

Andrew

Live at WFMU on Talk's Cheap with Jason Sigal on August, 18, 2011

Loot and Plunder Episode 1: A story with two beginnings

Part 2 of a series looking at a carving lent to me by a friend – what is it, where did it come from and what should we do with it?

Loot and Plunder Episode 2: Looking at the broken doll

Part 3 of a series looking at a carving lent to me by a friend – what is it, where did it come from and what should we do with it?

Loot and Plunder Episode 3: A visit to Ghana's High Commission

A podcast about stolen things - from Elgin's marbles to Ngungdeng’s dang