Lot 51
WURKUN KUNDUL FIGURE
NIGERIA
Auction: 28 May 2026 from 13:00 BST
Description
carved wood, of strongly stylised form, with a cylindrical body and surmounted by a large head on an elongated neck, the facial features are rendered in a restrained manner, raised on a bespoke wooden mount
Dimensions
45.2cm tall
Provenance
Private collection, Belgium, acquired from Joaquin Pecci, Brussels, 2024
Footnote
“Kundul figures served as part of Wurkun ritual practice in northern Nigeria. A healer would instruct clients to acquire a set from an artist as a component of treatment. The ritual expert then applied organic materials to empower the statues to aid the client’s well-being. The figures were then washed with a solution of brown or red clay and polished with oil from a local seed, producing the encrusted surfaces seen here. Objects like these may have been decorated around their long necks with palm frond fibers, the friction from the fibers smoothing the surface. A vertical head crest distinguishes the male from its female counterpart.”
Princeton University Art Museum, United States, 2015, for similar please see accession number 2015-6681 a-b.