66
Barry Craig greatly enriched the holdings of
Papua New Guinea’s own National Museum
and Art Gallery in Port Moresby.
The artworks in the exhibition and illustrated
in the book refl ect the traditions of the Sepik–
Ramu region, but they equally represent Northern
European collecting priorities through the
manner in which they were gathered together.
The preponderance of these objects comes from
the era of pre-WWI German collecting and shows
the then-contemporary taste for smaller refi ned
objects, as well as for artifacts that could more
easily be transported back to Europe. They are
predominantely from the lower reaches of the
Sepik–Ramu basin, where the majority of colonial
mercantile interests were established. Masks
dominate the selection, since they were desired
for the direct expression of the human condition,
while smaller charm fi gures and neckrests
appealed for their rich, well-handled patinas.
While of obvious ethnographic interest, these
objects also were appreciated from very early
on for their aesthetic sensibilities as much as for
any perceived rarities. Dedicated individuals like
German collector/dealer Arthur Speyer and A.
B. Lewis of the Field Museum knew precisely
the quality inherent in their sculptural forms and
displayed them with as much understanding and
appreciation of their “art” qualities as could be
expressed by any painting afi cionado. And, of
course, the burgeoning appreciation of Sepik–
Ramu art in the nascent modern art movements
of the time is signifi cant. Many of the objects in
Ancestral Visions were once part of institutional
holdings. German museums, in particular, had
a long tradition of exchanging duplicate or selling
surplus material, and this often entered the
open market. This was the case in a number of
pieces featured that were in the Linden Museum
in Stuttgart but were deaccessioned in the 1950s
and 1960s. Several pieces also came from the
private collections formed by early visitors and
residents such as gold prospector Ernst Tappenbeck,
Ulrich Häberle of the Neuguinea-Kompagnie,
and German-era Governor Albert Hahl. At
the same time, mission stations collected works
for their motherhouse museums in Europe, and
a number of these objects derive from the collections
of the Catholic congregations of the SVD
in The Netherlands and Germany. Perhaps the