99
FIG. 2 (left): General map of
Papua New Guinea.
© Tribal Art magazine.
For the most part, the museum’s Sepik River objects
were acquired in the fi eld. The earliest French
collecting expedition in the Sepik area was that of
La Korrigane (1934–1936). However, no orator’s
stools appear to have been brought back from
that voyage. In 1955, an expedition to Papua
New Guinea led by Françoise Girard was responsible
for providing the Musée de l’Homme with
most of its Sepik material (336 objects out of a total
of 510 collected by the expedition, the remainder
being essentially made up of Buang artifacts
from Morobe province). Among the Sepik pieces
was a stool from Kabriman (Blackwater Lakes)
with polychrome paint, which was given inventory
number 71.1955.76.460 (fi g. 5). This object,
which was undoubtedly created shortly before it
was collected, was probably sculpted for sale.
