Africa-Press – Angola. The piece “Mwana Pwo”, a symbol of female beauty in the Cokwe culture and one of the most valuable in the collection of the Regional Museum of Dundo, in Lunda Norte, was reportedly stolen, a fact that forced the preventive detention of the director of the institution, this Wednesday by the Criminal Investigation Service (SIC).
According to press, the piece disappeared after the death of an employee of that institution, who was responsible for the keys to the safe where the mask and diamonds intended for a special exhibition were deposited.
The detention of the museum director, Ilunga André, is due to the fact that he was supposedly involved in the theft of the piece.
The Mwana Pwo mask is part of a set of eight artifacts that had been illicitly exported to Europe in the 1990s, but which were recovered by the Sindika Dokolo Foundation, from the Kingdom of Belgium, having been returned to the Museum Regional do Dundo, in 2019, through the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
The museum
The museum, located in the “heart” of the ancient city of Dundo and with more than 100 years of existence, helps society to identify historical events that were decisive and essential for the construction of the Lunda “Empire”.
To help preserve memories and, at the same time, explain them to those interested, the institution has a collection full of articles and ethnographic, biological, archaeological, sacred and popular art collections and some objects that relate to the history of Industrial Revolution, such as the exploitation of diamonds.
The ethnographic collections of the Dundo Museum constitute the main component of the institution’s corporate purpose and result from the first campaign to collect pieces, called the Camaxilo expedition, made in the distant year of 1937, and the Alto Zambeze, in 1939.
The Dundo Museum has 9,000 ethnographic pieces and plans, soon, to collect others that are in the possession of people linked to art and collection holders.
Among the cultural articles on display, the statuette of Samanhonga (Thinker) stands out – which has become a national symbol -, the Mwana Phowo masks (depicts female beauty), Mukishi wa Mwanangana (king’s clown) – which corresponds to the sacred sacrifice and represents the ancestors of the tribal chief – as well as the musical instruments: Ngoma (drumming or drum) and puita.
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