113 box, Marind-Anim: splendidly dressed men, taken heads, bashful-looking women, portraits of some missionaries, the mission post in Merauke … and shields!3 Got them! (figs. 1–3) I jump out of my chair, then regain my composure and sit down again. The photographs are of a larger format than the other ones in this box and the sepia tone is surprising. Different format, different color … could it be that these pictures weren’t taken by the missionaries themselves? If not, by whom? The photographs are glued tightly to the paper, so looking at the back is not an option. Always new questions. But I should get writing— about Father Joseph Viegen, who participated in a military exploration of Asmat territory in 1912 and built up a collection of anthropological objects during the expedition. It was a collection consisting mainly of Asmat shields and some of the wooden anthropomorphic figures with slender bodies and bent limbs that are so characteristic of Asmat sculpture. The story I am about to write concerns this collection and how it was dispersed over the globe.4 It is a chronological history based on still-extant primary source material, although this is rather haphazard. The personal file for Father Joseph Viegen at the Kruisherenklooster is in a thin folder containing a preprinted form with his biographical details and work for the MSC filled out in black ink. An entire life, told more with dates and years than words. He was born in Maastricht on October 24, 1871. He was ordained in FIG. 4: Father Joseph Viegen, c. 1905. Reproduced with the kind permission of the MSC de Tilburg. FATHER VIEGEN 1897, and then left for New Pomerania (now New Britain). From 1904 to 1909 he was a prior at Langgoer, Kei Islands. In 1909 he arrived in Merauke and worked among the Marind-Anim. In 1915 he returned to the Kei Islands. Written after the years 1915–1919 are the words “Kei, infirm.” In December 1919 he travelled back to the Netherlands, where he died on November 11, 1936. A separate envelope contains some pictures of him and his “In Memoriam” card. I line them up on the table. The first one shows a young Father Viegen, perhaps freshly ordained? That would have made him twenty-five years old. Narrow shoulders, parted hair, a moustache, the beginnings of a goatee, and small oval glasses (fig. 4). In 1905, Viegen came to the Netherlands on leave and I suspect that the next photo must have been made at that time. So there he must have been thirty-four or thereabouts. The remaining pictures show a significantly older Viegen and were probably all made after his final return to the Netherlands. The last picture shows Father Viegen dead in his coffin. Beneath his head there is a pillow with the words “Rust in vrede” (rest in peace) embroidered onto it. Around his head, some flowers. There’s another box with notes and correspondence from Father Viegen, but virtually all the notes are about the Marind-Anim and I learn nothing about his participation in the 1912 expedition. They are all written in small, neat handwriting and illustrated with detailed drawings. Viegen dedicated a lot of attention to his re
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