culture

[Investigation] How Mali’s Dogon culture was looted

in depth

This article is part of the dossier:

Who owns Mali’s Dogon cultural heritage?

By Nicolas Michel

Posted on June 20, 2023 11:47

A visitor looks at Dogon sculptures as he visits ‘The Dogon’ exhibition during the media day at the Quai Branly Museum in Paris
A visitor looks at women figures with raised arms as he visits ‘The Dogon’ exhibition during the media day at the Quai Branly Museum in Paris April 4, 2011. ‘The Dogon’ exhibition, which will run from April 5 to July 24, presents Dogon culture and art history from the 10th century until today through more than 330 exceptional pieces from International collections and presented together for the first time in France. REUTERS/Charles Platiau (FRANCE – Tags: SOCIETY) – PM1E7440ZT501

On June 21 2023, ahead of a major exhibition “Dakar-Djibouti, Counter-Investigations”, scheduled for 2025 at the Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac in France, Sotheby’s is selling a portion of the art merchant Hélène Leloup’s collection. The collection assembled between the end of the colonial era and the beginning of Mali’s independence, which allowed this specialist in Dogon arts to accumulate substantial profits.

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