Fang revealed...
"The experiment"
The Fang piece we have been talking about is a piece that was auctioned off at Sotheby's in November of 2000. As
you can see there is not much information regarding the estimated age or collection date, it only states that the piece
was acquired from Helmut Zacke in 1971.

I did the original posting on this piece as a hopeful learning experience for the group. I wanted to pick a figure that
had been at a major auction house and a piece that hopefully was not all that well known. I picked a piece that had
some stylistic differences than some of the other Fang pieces.

The piece sold at auction in 2000 at Sotheby's for over $81,000 USD. It must mean that it's a good piece and that it's
authentic. I know that it's hard to judge a piece from a picture, but that is the only medium available to us in this group
usually. I was curious as to how many people would speak of this piece as an outright fake or if someone would
actually see that it had value. The interactions were interesting and I hope that it was a good learning experience for
all. I love the interaction that is available in the group, I don't have much African Art interaction besides what I get in
the group so I do value it.

Maybe the next time someone posts a picture about an item, we can all think back to the picture below and give the
item in question a little slack. The item in question may be a fake or it may not be a fake, it is hard to tell from a picture
sometimes, especially if the picture is not of that great of quality. At times I wish that we all could get together
someday and have some sort of a workshop, listen to people speak, handle old pieces that have had traditional use
and have an old original patina and compare pieces from the same tribes with stylistic differences. Face to face
learning experiences. Until that day I will enjoy the interactions of the group.

African Art in many regards is truly complex... but in other ways it is also truly simple and wonderful.