Pre-contact Sawos Culture Mwai Mask-Masco Collection-Oceanic Art
Sawos Mei mask, Masco Collection, Sawos culture, north of Middle Sepik River, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea, collected pre-1915 by the German colonial Dr. Hans Ewald Kersten (Inventory number 1641 painted in white on the mask’s reverse), Philip Goldman, London, Bruce Seaman, Bora-Bora, Wayne Heathcote, New York, Masco Collection, Detroit, Sotheby’s New York, 15 November 2002, lot 138, David Rosenthal, San Francisco, Cathryn Cootner Collection, Sonoma, Pre-contact, stone-carved, 19th century, 15 ¼” (38.7 cm) in height. Published in Island Ancestors: Oceanic Art from the Masco Collection. 1994, no. 19, pages 66/67. Published in "OCEANIC ART: PROVENANCE AND HISTORY" edited by Michael Hamson, pages 84/85 item 15.