In the village of Kambaramba, initiated men
gave him access to the important and culturally
restricted area of the men’s house where sacred
objects such as dance masks and fl utes were being
stored (fi g. 6). There they also showed him
carefully wrapped up wooden panels that were
covered with the most exceptional feather mosaics
(Melk-Koch 1989: 170).
Thurnwald was so enthralled by what he considered
to be among the greatest artworks of the
South Seas that he collected about a hundred examples
from various villages. The majority were
immediately dispatched to the Museum für Völkerkunde
of Berlin (Thurnwald 1917: 170). The
First World War put an end to Thurnwald’s fi eldwork,
and he was made prisoner of war in January
1915 by Australian troops, who also confi scated
the more recent material he had collected
that was still in New Guinea. Two feather mosaics,
now in the National Museum of Australia,
are most likely part of this seized material. After
the First World War, some of the Berlin feather
mosaics were distributed to regional ethnographic
museums such as Munich, Stuttgart, Dresden,
Göttingen, and Mannheim. The dire fi nancial situation
of the Berlin museum was a contributing
factor for the sale of a large number of so-called
duplicates to private buyers, in particular the
art dealers Arthur Speyer (1859–1923) and Arthur
Speyer Jr. (1894–1958). Through the latter,
the ethnographic museums of Geneva, Neuchâtel,
and Burgdorf all acquired feather mosaics.
103
FIG. 4 (right): Masked
Kambot (Ambot) dancer
with feather mosaic
headdress. Photo by Fr.
Franz Kirschbaum.
Historical Photo Archive,
Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum –
Cultures of the World, Cologne, inv.
3356D.
FIG. 5 (right): Richard Thurnwald on
the way from the Sepik to the coast
with his indigenous helpers in 1913.
Ethnologisches Museum der Staatlichen Museen
zu Berlin–Preußischer Kulturbesitz, inv. VIII B
8566.