A Kota reliquary figure, Gabon/Congo, wooden anthropomorphic sculpture ornamented with copper inlay on the concave double-face. Such figures used to be placed on top of the reliquaries containing the bones of important ancestors to watch and protect them. Ironically, the Europeans took the sculptures but not the reliquaries. At the beginning of the 20th century, such figures became a source of inspiration for the avant-garde artists in France, especially Picasso, fascinated by these abstract forms and considering them as 'The very summit of African creativity', height 43 cm, width 15 cm