Lot 380

Bamana Kono Power Mask, Ex-Mount / Museum African Art

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Lot 380
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Bamana Kono Power Mask, Ex-Mount / Museum African Art
Bamana Kono Power Mask, Ex-Mount / Museum African Art
image_0 image_1 image_2 image_3 image_4 image_5

Bamana Kono Power Mask, Ex-Mount / Museum African Art

Estimate: $4,000 - $6,000

Starting Bid: $2,000

(0 Bids)
by Artemis Fine Arts
June 12, 2026 9:00 AM MDT
Live Auction
686 S. Taylor Avenue
Suite 108
Louisville, CO, US 80027

Horizontally worn immense mask of the Kono, a secret society that was prevalent for the Bamana people before 19th cent. This impressive and heavy hardwood large mask is representative of an a mythical beast, a composite creature loosely based on both elephant and crocodile. Long parallel jaws extend from large head with raised nasal ridge along center, and long ears reminscent of a hyena project along the top. Tiny eyeholes are almost obscured by the sacrificial materials. A fetish attachment of organic material is suspended from the nasal ridge with twisted fiber. The surface is built up with a thick rough crusty surface composed of a sacrificial patina similar to zoomorphic power figures called “boli”.

Losses at edges of ears, wear hole in forehead.

According Jean-Paul Colleyn, The Art of Existence in Mali ., p. 188), “The functions of the Kono are to foster female fecundity and agricultural fertility, to resolve conflicts, to calm down or punish trouble-makers, and most of all to intimidate the soul-eating creatures (subagaw).”

Closely related mask of similar form and size is part of The Michael C. Rockefeller Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Inv. No. 1978.412.361, web.

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/310799

Provenance: Acquired in Bamako in the mid-1970s by Marshall Mount; Marshall and Caroline Mount Collection, Jersey City, NJ.

Published: Colleyn, Jean-Paul, ed., Bamana: The Art of Existence in Mali, Museum for African Art, 2001, p. 187, fig. 167.

Exhibited: Montclair Art Museum, 1983; Museum for African Art, New York, 2001–02; Milwaukee Art Museum, 2003; NSU Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, 2003.

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Item # 71678

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Bid Increments
From: To: Increments:
$0 $749 $25
$750 $1,499 $50
$1,500 $2,999 $100
$3,000 $7,499 $250
$7,500 $14,999 $500
$15,000 + $1,000