Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Figure from a Reliquary Ensemble: Seated Male
Not on view
Due to its prestigious provenance and impressive physical presence, this sculpture is undoubtedly the most famous work from Agnes and Eugene Meyer’s collection of African art. Like most African works imported to the West, this Fang reliquary sculpture experienced several changes en route, beginning with its separation from its relic’ container. Recent scientific analysis indicates that the hands were repaired and might originally have held a bowl in a gesture of offering. The work’s positioning on a wooden pyramidal display mount (in the exhibition, a re-creation of the early twentieth-century original) constituted the last step in its affirmation as a "work of art."
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