Masterpieces from Central Africa: The Tervuren Museum

About this book

King Leopold II of Belgium founded the Tervuren Museum in 1897 as a "window on Central Africa" for the Belgian people to draw attention to the opportunities for trade that existed there. He had ruled the Congo Free State (now Zaire) from 1885 and was still king of Belgium when it annexed the territory in 1908 as the Belgian Congo. The Congo was the destination of many scientific and ethnographic expeditions; among the most notable was one undertaken by E. Torday and T.A. Joyce of the British Museum from 1907 to 1909. The most famous however was the first of all: in 1877 six years after his legendary meeting with Dr. Livingstone in neighboring Tanzania Henry M. Stanley traced the hitherto unexplored Congo River as a reporter with the New York Herald. Missionaries civil servants scientists and travelers brought back a plethora of indigenous artifacts cultural treasures and some superb photographic records from these expeditions including material that documented decades of cultures that had already disappeared. For many years until interest in ethnographica grew in the art world the aesthetic value of this Aladdinss Cave of objects went unrecognized by all the but specialists. So many dossiers were compiled and objects collected that much of the material has remained unseen by the general public for over three generations.