Marapu statue - West Sumba - Indonesia (No reserve price)

These wooden sculptures represent the Marapu, the ancestral deities and spirits of the ancestors venerated in the indigenous animist religion of the island of Sumba. For the local people, the Marapu are not merely reminders of the past, but living, present entities that mediate between the earthly and divine worlds, protecting the community, ensuring bountiful harvests, and bringing prosperity.
​Sculptures of this kind were traditionally placed inside homes or at ritual and ceremonial sites. They served as temporary dwellings or points of contact for the ancestor’s spirit during prayers, rites, or offerings.
The highly stylized facial features—such as elongated faces, prominent straight noses, and fixed gazes—are typical of Sumba tribal art. The color combination of white applied to the face and red details (such as the bands around the neck and the beads on the eyes) carries strong symbolic meaning linked to the cycles of life, blood, ritual, and spiritual status.
These two statuettes were collected locally by an Italian anthropologist in 1990 and have remained in his collection until now.

The photographs are an integral part of the description.