The Historian’s Tribal Art Collection

The auction contains a total of 130 auction lots with masks, figures and art objects, all of which have been used for traditional religious purposes among the tribal people.

The items at the auction come from various private and international collections, but the vast majority originate from the impressive collection of the Dane Alex Wittendorff. For more than 30 years he taught history at the University of Copenhagen. He also authored a large number of op-eds and features on history in addition to books such as "Tyge Brahe", “Rejsen mod virkeligheden: Den europæiske forestillingsverden fra reformationen til nutiden” (The Journey to Reality: The European World of Ideas from the Reformation to the Present) and the seventh volume in Gyldendal and Politiken’s series of books on the history of Denmark.

One of Wittendorff's areas of interest was the history of the tribal peoples’ mindset. Through the study of local religions, rituals and artefacts, he attempted to map out a number of indigenous peoples' thoughts and understandings of the world. Wittendorff had a scientific approach to ethnographic objects, and his enormous collection is a result of his extensive research. He began collecting back in the 1960s and continued to expand the collection until his death in 2013. Within the Scandinavian collector’s community of tribal art, he was a very well-known figure, who loved to share his vast knowledge.

Join us on this adventurous journey to distant regions and past eras!