jects were more readily allowed to pass into the
hands of foreigners than were orator’s stools,
which were also associated with these structures
(Garnier, 2018). Consequently, many examples
are now in museums and private collections
around the world, although many of these may
be no more than curios. Sepik artists quickly understood
104
that these objects caught the attention
of Westerners and they produced many of them
for sale, and they continue to be made for tourists
today. The fi rst examples were collected very
early, at the beginning of the twentieth century
(fi gs. 4 and 11) by German expeditions (Reche,
1913: pl. XXXIV; Kelm, 1966: 367–371). The
old gable sculptures of the Wolimbit house are
now in different places (fi gs. 20, 23, and 24a and
b). When one compares the known examples in
the museums of Port Moresby (Craig, 2010: 63),
Paris (Le Fur, 2007: 228–229) and in private
collections, one realizes that they have hardly
changed stylistically for more than a century.
The gable sculpture collected by Markert in
1961 for the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum was
traded to the Stolper Gallery in Amsterdam in
1967. This sculpture, which now belongs to Galerie
Schoffel de Fabry in Paris, appears to be old
and could have been part of the Wolimbit house
when it was photographed by Bateson in 1932.
It has two characteristic elements, the fi rst being
the carving of a kami silurid fi sh (Arius species)
that seems to be biting the bird’s tail, and the
second a hooked beak with teeth that brings to
mind the dual nature of the bird-crocodile. This
motif evokes the myth related to Wassmann
(1991: 192–195) and noted above about the
fi sh that were caught by the two women. The
representation of a fi sh associated with this type
of sculpture is also observed on recently manufactured
curios (fi g. 26), demonstrating that the
young artists of the twenty-fi rst century interpret
the myth in their own way while still respecting
a traditional and older aesthetic code.
The pairs of sculptures on a single house were
often fairly similar, but it is rare for them to
have been obtained together, though the ones
of the Nyamglambi house in the village of Nangosap,
called Yesengandimi and Torungundimi,
are still with each other (fi g. 27). They were collected
by Hermann Lissauer in the early 1960s
and acquired by Jean Guiart in 1966. They are
now in the Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques
Chirac in Paris (Peltier, 2016: 164–165). One
of the sculptures from the ceremonial houses
of the village of Malingei was collected by
Father J. Heinemans and then passed through
the hands of various collectors and dealers. It is
currently in the Galerie Alain Bovis collection
(fi g. 28). Its mate was collected in 1961 by the
Frobenius expedition, led by ethnologist Meinhard
Schuster (Haberland and Schuster, 1964:
61; Schuster: 1961), and is now in the Frankfurt
am Main Museum (fi g. 29).
CONCLUSION
The Christianized inhabitants of the Sepik villages
continue to construct ceremonial houses
and never fail to put sculptures of birds on the
tops of their gable spires because they are emblems
recognizable to their communities. Papuan
artist Ruki Fame created one in metal for
the roof of one of the buildings of the Museum
and Art Gallery in Port Moresby (fi g. 30). Nowadays
this type of sculpture is seen on the spires
of communal houses intended for use by tourists.
It may seem surprising to fi nd it on Catholic
religious buildings, but it now appears as an
angel with hands clasped in prayer surmounted
by the dove of peace instead of serving as an
emblem of the fi erce headhunting warriors of
former times (fi gs. 31 and 32). Apparently the
priests that commissioned these works deliberately
intended to transform the old and popular
representation of the warriors’
power into a symbol of peace.
Acknowledgments
We wish to thank our German
colleagues Dr. Eva Raabe of the
Museum der Weltkulturen in
Frankfurt am Main and Dr. Oliver
Lueb of the Rautenstrauch-Joest
Museum in Cologne, as well as
Christophe de Fabry and Alain Bovis
for the information they kindly
shared with us.
FIG. 30 (left): Metal sculpture
by the Papuan artist Ruki
Fame.
© C. Coiffi er, 1979.
FEATURE
FIG. 31 (above): Gable
sculpture above the door of
the Catholic church in the
village of Kaningara, Papua
New Guinea.
© C. Coiffi er, 1988.
FIG. 32 (below): View of the
façade of the Catholic church
in the village of Kaningara,
Papua New Guinea.
© C. Coiffi er, 1988.