Is it a matter of money or of the soul of the Gabonese people? An antique dealer buys a fang mask from a very elderly retired couple in the south of France for 150 euros and sells it shortly after for 4.2 million euros. The retirees filed a complaint to have the sale canceled, but so did an association of Gabonese people in France.
It all started in September 2021, in Gard. A very elderly retired couple wants to empty their second home and sells, among other things, a carved wooden mask found in the attic for 150 euros to an antique dealer. The latter dates the object with carbon 14, calls on an ethnologist and offers it at an exceptional auction at the auction house in Montpellier as an extremely rare fang mask from Gabon. Result: purchased at 150 euros, the mask was priced at 300,000 euros and finally sold for 4.2 million euros in March 2022 to a buyer whose name and nationality remain secret. Since then, the retired couple feel ripped off and have filed a complaint against the second-hand dealer. Well Named ? Question to Yves-Bernard Debie, general director of Parcours des Mondes, the reference meeting in terms of primitive arts, but also lawyer and advisor to the final buyer of the Fang mask in question.
“ This is clearly not a deception. The sellers were aware that they were selling an ancient African mask which came from an ancestor who died in 1931. So, it must have been an authentic ancient mask. The second-hand dealer knew he was buying an ancient African mask. It’s not a question of deception, but simply a question of the value of things. »
“Collected » under unknown circumstances
Before the sale, the antique dealer contacted the retired couple to investigate the provenance of this 55-centimeter-high mask, wonderfully carved from cheese wood and fascinating with its kaolin patina. The 86-year-old man then explained to him that his grandfather, René-Victor Edward Maurice Fournier, was at the time a colonial governor in Africa and had “collected” this mask around 1917 in unknown circumstances. In an increasingly strict art market regarding the provenance of works, is this information sufficient to remove doubts? Would it have been possible to exhibit and sell this mask with this information alone at the Parcours des mondes? “ A Fang mask collected in 1917 in Gabon by an identified governor, the provenance is clear enough to have its place in the largest fair in the world and also in a museum », affirms Yves-Bernard Debie.
On March 26, 2022, Solange Bizeau was present at the auction house in Montpellier, not to buy, but to protest against the sale. For her, this rare mask from the end of the 19th century is part of the inalienable heritage of the Fang people of Gabon. “ I am Gabonese, from the Fang culture. This mask is not for sale. This object has a soul. I find this really shocking “, underlines the one who is also president of the Collectif Gabon Occitanie (CGO) which works actively in Montpellier for the restitution of the work, specifying that it is a mask of the Ngil secret society of the Fang people in Gabon. For Yves-Bernard Debie, this claim has no legal basis: “ We must already see the legitimacy of people who claim to be able to speak in the name of Gabon or an ethnic group. This is a mask that was collected under completely correct circumstances. There is not the slightest reason to be able to follow through on a request for restitution like this. »
The power of a Ngil mask
Paul-Henri Gondjout Mbone Nze has already heard this request to prove his legitimacy very often. It is therefore in a very relaxed way that he responds: “ I am Gabonese above all, but before being Gabonese, I am from the fang community. And I myself am the grandson and great-grandson of a Ngil master, that is to say a magistrate belonging to the brotherhood of the Ngil secret society. This is my legitimacy as heir to demand the unconditional restitution of this mask. »
Also a member of the Collectif Gabon Occitanie in Montpellier, he willingly tries to dispel other misunderstandings or ambiguities. No, the rites of the secret Ngil community have not been abandoned and yes, masks still have a role to play in society today.
“ This is still practiced, although it has been banned since colonization, around 1910. But the Ngil ceremony is still practiced secretly in Gabon. What is the purpose of this mask ? Concretely, when there were crimes or sins committed by inhabitants of a village or a town, the one who worked to restore order, justice and truth was the magistrate Ngil who had a secret identity. Nobody knew who he was. But, when the mask came out, you had to know that it was a moment when justice was going to operate, where there would be sanctions. And the Ngil was never wrong ! »
The mask and the ancestors
For Solange Bizeau, it is unimaginable that the mask was sold or given voluntarily to French Governor Fournier: “ Our ancestors told us that the settlers told them that all these objects were just demons, black magic, bad things and that they had to get rid of them. And until today, they get rich with it. »
“ This mask was quite simply stolen, torn off, continues Paul-Henri Gondjout Mbone Nze. During colonization, this was a common practice. Most of the governors sent to Africa had understood the interest of works of worship, linked to rites and spirituality. There was a lot of business going on. They went into the villages, sowed terror and confiscated whatever property they could from the natives to build up extraordinary collections. »
During the sale, the Gabonese embassy in Paris “ certified us to do everything with us to recover this mask “. In the meantime, there was a regime change in Gabon and the Collective is in the process of “ reconnect with the new Culture Managers “. Today, the Collectif Gabon Occitanie declares having filed a complaint with the Montpellier court against the auctioneer of the sale, but also against the buyers and the descendants of the governor who owned the mask. On the other hand, for Mbone Nze, the legal fight between the retired couple and the antique dealer who had made a good deal for 150 euros should not even take place. “ Today, we have a family who feels robbed and says they have been ripped off by a second-hand dealer, when, ultimately, there are two parties fighting over an object that does not belong to them. »
“This mask still has powers”
In the meantime, the retirees’ lawyer summoned the second-hand dealer and thus suspended the sale. They are asking for the outright cancellation of the transaction for having misled them about the value of the item. The case will be pleaded on October 31 before the judicial court of Alès in Gard. But the jurisprudence of the “Poussin judgments” which had previously caused the cancellation of the sale of two paintings by the painter Nicolas Poussin wrongly attributed to minor authors, does not apply here, comments Yves-Bernard Debie: “ The “Poussin” ruling of 1978 has absolutely nothing to do with it. There was a problem of authenticity with the Poussins, but the question asked with the mask is poorly posed and poorly covered by many media. We are dealing with a question of value. However, there is consistent case law that according to article 1136 of the French Civil Code, there is no nullity of a sale if one is mistaken about the value. Inaccurate economic assessment is not a cause of invalidity. »
The question of values also resonates, but differently, in the head of Solange Bizeau. For the president of the Collectiv CGO, the questions of value and restitution are at the center of this affair closely followed by her relatives in Gabon: “ Our parents were happy, proud, that we continued in this momentum. We have suffered so much. Today, there is a new generation who will not let this happen. Those who demand this mask are only the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the thieves and kidnappers, and we are the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of those from whom we stole. The fight is there. Today this truth must come out. »
Paul-Henri Gondjout Mbone Nze is not thinking of letting go of the matter either, quite the contrary. “ We are very happy that the sale could be stopped. The buyer in question cannot benefit from the stolen item and the governor’s descendants cannot profit from the sale of a stolen item. In the end, the Ngil, mask of truth, is taking his own justice! I am sure that he will return to the Fang people. It’s a mask that still has powers. »