Africa. Kuyu, Democratic Republic of Congo A beautiful and ancient polychrome kebe-kobe dance marotte, richly adorned and scarified, with a headdress pierced with a multitude of holes that once held feathers and long fibers, and here supported by a removable handle, an ancient indigenous restoration testifying to the importance that was given to this sculpture so that it could continue to work. From the hand of a master sculptor (or one of his disciples), the treatment of the face, its rich ornaments and in particular two points in relief, scarifications at the nape of the neck, constitute the signature, probably not of a single master-sculptor, but of a style or workshop that generated the most prestigious corpus of Kuyu art and whose most famous examples were collected by the former administrator of the colonies in the Middle Congo, and prolific collector of works: Aristide Courtois. Cf. Tribal Art Magazine XXI, num. 83 Spring 2017, "La découverte différée des objets kuyu" by A. M. Bénézech, pp. 92-107. Wood, kaolin, traditional polychromy, very beautiful patina of use, small accidents, wear and cracks of age. H. 26.5 cm without its handle and 38 cm with its removable handle /// A beautiful old kebe dance marotte with engraved frontal and temporal scarifications in relief, wearing a torque, and having the particularity of having small inserted teeth made of miniature wooden tenons instead of being carved in the mass. H. 56cm - (Africa, African art, Civilization and ethnic groups).