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ART on view FIG. 4: Sculptural element from a reliquary ensemble: head (The Great Bieri). Fang peoples, Betsi group, Gabon. 19th–early 20th century. Wood, metal, palm oil. H: 46.5 cm. The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Bequest of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979. 1979.206.229. 84 FIG. 5: Opening reception for The Traditional Arts of Africa’s New Nations, May 16, 1961. Nelson A. Rockefeller, US Ambassador to the United Nations Adlai Stevenson, and Nigerian Ambassador to the United Nations, Alhaji Muhammad Ngileruma, O.B.E., H.E. AR 1999.14.29-2. Visual Resource Archive, Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Goldwater underscored that this celebrated work had for the last quarter of a century become “a symbol of African art.” A year later, a followup memo of August 28, 1961, to Rockefeller apprised him of the fact that the collection was to be sold privately by Parisian dealer Charles Ratton. Under this arrangement, the MPA and the Musée des Arts africains et océaniens in Paris would be given first pick, so Goldwater urged Rockefeller to act on a list of five outstanding works, including “The Great Bieri,” along with the prices assigned to them by Ratton. Goldwater celebrated the work’s subsequent addition to the collection with a standalone publication devoted to this single masterpiece that he opened with the following words: “For every style, and every period, in the history of the arts of mankind, a few works stand out above the rest. Somehow they both contain and surpass all these qualities which we value in the art of the culture from which they come. … The GREAT BIERI is such a work: It is the embodiment of Fang sculpture and one of the great classics of African art” (Goldwater MPA New York: 1962). So significant was this acquisition for Goldwater that upon his death it was featured as the front and back cover images of the publication for the memorial exhibition organized in his honor from October 1973 through February 1974. The twenty-seven works from the collection of African sculpture featured were those “in which Robert Goldwater took the greatest interest, as collector and scholar” (The Museum of Primitive Art. Checklist for Robert Goldwater: A Memorial Exhibition. New York: Museum of Primitive Art, 1973). The final item on Goldwater’s Epstein collection shortlist had been a Madagascar couple (fig. 7). Of this sculptural element from the summit of a ritual post that was originally positioned at the center of a Malagasy village, he wrote to Rockefeller, “This is a supplementary recommendation. Its price is high. However, it is unique, extremely well-known, and far and away the best example of its style. There will never be another similar object. It too would be a ‘symbolic’ addition to our collections.” Offered at the same price as the “Great Bieri,” Rockefeller elected to pass and the work was acquired by Carlo Monzino. Half a century later, in 2001, the MMA acquired the iconic couple, finally filling this remaining gap in the collection with the


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