Left, a Dogon sculpture depicting a maternity figure , in the Pavillon des Sessions at the Musée du Louvre. Right, a pre-Dogon sculpture depicting an androgynous king-woman , at the Musée du Quai Branly. © Montage JA; Vincent Fournier for JA
While the Musée du Quai Branly is organising a major exhibition on the Dakar-Djibouti mission in 2025, on 21 June Sotheby’s is auctioning the collection of African art dealer Hélène Leloup, no stranger to seven-figure gains. This is the first instalment of our investigation into a theft that dares not speak its name.– After Mali became independent, Western dealers scoured the country in search of objets d’art.
– We have attempted to retrace the steps of one of them, which recently entered the collections of the Musée du Quai Branly. A ‘rare Dogon sculpture depicting a maternity figure’, acquired by an art dealer who wears many hats. What do ethnologist Marcel Griaule and art dealer Hélène Leloup have in common? Without doubt, it is their unbounded love for the Dogons and their heritage; a very possessive love, rooted in colonial tradition.
The Dogon, settled between the Bandiagara cliffs and the south-western loop of the Niger, have particularly suffered from the attention of French ethnologists, and the legacy of MarcelGet unlimited access to our exclusive journalism and features today. Our award-winning team of correspondents and editors report from over 54 African countries, from Cape Town to Cairo, from Abidjan to Abuja to Addis Ababa. Africa. Unlocked.