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FEATURE FIG. 25 (right): Shield no. 15. Michel Thieme Collection, Amsterdam. Photo: Jan van Esch. FIG. 26 (facing page left): Shield no. 20, accompanied by a document typed by the collector indicating: “Shield with rhomboid decorations. Length: 133 cm. Greatest width: 28.5 cm. Whitewash with dark brown. Purchased from the MSC mission house in 1950. Collected by Father Viegen ... Noordwest River?” It is visible in figs. 12 and 13. Private collection. Photo: Jan van Esch. 126 FIG. 27 (facing page right): Shield no. 21, accompanied by a document typed by the collector indicating: “Shield with arrow-shaped decorations. Originally covered with white chalk and decorations painted in red (dark brown). Purchased at the MSC mission house in 1950. Collected by Father Viegen ... Noordwest River? H: 118 cm, greatest width: 30 cm.” It is visible in fig. 12. Private collection. Photo: Jan van Esch. pear. I suspect that opening up the Asmat territory didn’t become the priority that was once envisioned. In the 1920s, there was a serious lack of funds for their existing missions. Do the installations in ‘s-Hertogenbosch and Maastricht testify most greatly to the fact that Father Viegen helped put them together? At any rate, the MSC seems to have had few qualms about selling off their Asmat objects. Finding these shields and sculptures in a private collection is always something special. They hang in the living room or the stairwell or, every once in a while, have been put away in a drawer. They have become family heirlooms: “I don’t know how they got it, but as long as I can remember this shield was on the living room wall of my grandparents.” Almost without exception these private owners show a real devotion to their objects and never tire of looking at them. The owner of shield number 15, for example, told me this: “I like to listen to Stravinsky’s Sacre du Printemps when looking at my shield. There is a certain movement in the patterns, from the top left, down and toward the middle. Sometimes you can almost see the notes of the music whirling down along the same pattern. Some of the smaller ornaments have some similarities to notes on sheet music. … Somehow, these very early motifs are more inspired. They were made at a time when the meanings of the motives were still close to the culture and the people. Headhunting was still at the center of their lives.” A few years ago, I was discussing one of the Asmat shields collected by Viegen with a collector. At the time, I didn’t know much about their provenance, but I underlined (as I tend to do) the importance of documentation


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