Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art

About this Work

Water spirits are important sources of power in several West African cultures for their abilities to cross between worlds of the living and ancestral realm. During the nineteenth century, performers at masquerades danced in ighodo masks at annual purification ceremonies. In 1897, British officials raided and looted Benin Kingdom’s palace, which prompted the use of ighodo masks, including this one, to drive away British officials. Thousands of royal objects were taken back to Britain and eventually entered public and private collections worldwide.

Records indicate that British officials acquired this ighodo mask in 1897. It subsequently entered a collection in Paris before traveling to the Allan Frumkin Gallery in Chicago, where Raymond Wielgus purchased it in 1975. The Eskenazi Museum is committed to transparency in sharing collection histories and will update this text as new information comes to light.