in Depth

Who owns Mali’s Dogon cultural heritage?

After the independence of Mali, Western merchants scoured the territory in search of art objects. Some of these works, acquired under opaque conditions, are now worth several million euros. On the eve of a major sale, we have traced the trajectory of one of them, recently added to the collections of the Musée du Quai Branly. Investigation.

A visitor looks at Dogon sculptures as he visits ‘The Dogon’ exhibition during the media day at the Quai Branly Museum in Paris

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culture

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[Investigation] How Mali’s Dogon culture was looted On June 21 2023, ahead of a major exhibition “Dakar-Djibouti, Counter-Investigations”, scheduled for 2025 at the Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac i...

Left, a Dogon sculpture depicting a maternity figure (Mali, 18th century), in the Pavillon des Sessions at the Musée du Louvre. Right, a pre-Dogon sculpture depicting an androgynous king-woman (Mali, 11th century), at the Musée du Quai Branly. © Montage JA; Vincent Fournier for JA

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long gone

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France-Mali: the Dogon haul, or how Mali’s heritage was plundered 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 collecti...

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collector spectre

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‘Adventurous’ art dealer Hélène Leloup’s bargains in Dogon country Meet Hélène Leloup, a “pioneer” of African art, according to her devotees, who manages to wear the hats of both art dealer and curator. Her collection...

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white saviours?

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Did French dealers sack or save Mali’s Dogon art? With the restitution of artworks more topical than ever, certain dealers who took advantage of the absence of heritage laws at the start of independen...

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