The first photograph depicts a terracotta head that was “Collected by Milutin Djoulizibaritch, a French engineer working in the Sokoto area of Nigeria in ca. 1929”.
The ambiguity about the origin of this piece epitomizes one of the problems of the antiquities trade, whether legal or illicit.
The naturalism of this exquisite terracotta is highly reminiscent of medieval Ife terracottas, but certain stylistic differences, particularly the hairstyle/headdress and unusually crudely shaped ears, potentially casts doubt on this identification. Devoid of its archaeological context, we can only guess at its true provenance. In this particular case, a thermoluminescence test was carried out to determine its date.
The age of firing was dated between the early 16th century to mid 18th century, which makes it unusually late for an Ife terracotta, which were overwhelmingly produced between the 12th and the 15th century. The problem is further compounded by the fact that similar naturalistic terracottas were produced in other Yoruba kingdoms as well, particularly Owo, until the 16th century. This terracotta was sold in Los Angeles, by the Bonhams auction house on July 2nd 2020, for US$ 17,575 to a private collector.
The second photograph depicts a c. 600 year old terracotta head from the Kingdom of Ife, which was smuggled out of Nigeria, via Ghana using forged documents in 2019, intercepted at Schiphol international airport in Amsterdam, and subsequently returned to Nigeria in 2020.
