The
Katchinas on the art market and the forever higher prices are a thorny,
multifaceted subject. The collecting frenzy concerning the Kachina dolls carved
in cottonwood root is unimaginable. Of course people prefer to buy the old and
authentic figures. In the old days and still today they were given to the
Pueblo children as an educational tool of their spiritual life. They used to be
hung by a string on the wall or between woven mats between the beams on the
ceiling. Often adorned with stylized symbols these fascinating figures are
usually connected to clouds, rain, corn, fertility. Artists and anthropologists
always were interested in these colorful, often bizarre sculpting; also the
Dadaists with among others Maw Ernst, Man ray and André Breton. At the public
sale of Breton’s estate on the 17th of April 2003 all the native art
from his collections was auctioned of. The Katchinas fetched prices between
5000 € and 50.000 €. The Ethnological Museum from Marseille has been able to
obtain one for 25.000 €. This poses a problem: Hopi, Zuni and an other nation
from the plains had asked the famous auction house Hôtel Drouot in Paris, not
to sell seven specific items. They were still active religious objects and the
communities to which they belonged wished to use them. Without them the ritual
connected to the object cannot be performed. The Katchinas and other objects
are of vital importance for the well being of the peoples whose ancestors have
made these objects in a ritual way. Impolite, not to say rudely Pierre Amrouche
replied along the line that: your request doesn’t regard us… we do not have to
comply with American law and that is a good thing” (source: Karenne Wood,
responsible for the coordination of the repatriation of Native American
objects). The request wasn’t even passed on to André Breton’s heirs. And
legally the auction house is right, but once again ritually important objects
disappeared in an overseas museum or in a private collection.
Today the
Kachinas are still carved from the same roots. The style has subtly changed
over the centuries, were it only because acrylic paint is used and that is much
more colorful than old, vegetal dyes. The oldest images seem flatter and
stiffer, with the arms close to the body, where as today one finds the arms in
all kinds of positions. Basically the makers of the old Kachinas are anonymous,
although the excellent doll carvers can be recognized by their style. The problem isn’t the normal images one
find in many collections, but the ritually active objects that have been stolen
or other wise obtained in an unacceptable way. Although the collectors and the
museums take good care of their objects, they don’t know how these objects have
to be taken care of in a ritual way. Those who know these secrets, are
initiated to do this in their respective societies are the only ones who can
perform the task of caring for these objects. The art collectors are unaware
that he is dealing with a manifestation of something spiritual or godly. And
then the question: how much does one pay for that? Can such an artifact be sold…?
This case
is doubly hard, as the nations had asked for these objects. It happens that
objects are repatriated, but that the tribes do not have the accommodations to
keep the objects, or to display them. Moreover if the objects still have their
power, that power can be contaminated by having been in the proximity of other
objects with a different power. Some feathers and “masks” that had been given
back, made the wearers of them very sick. It turned out that in order to kill
the lice in the feathers and other things that could destroy them, the museum
had used arsenic…
from the book: Wevers tussen twee werelden, Kramat, 2004
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