African collections

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There are several collections of African art in Slovenia, the most impressive ones, however, are housed in the museums in Ljubljana, Velenje and Slovenj Gradec. They are tightly linked to the collectors themselves, among them catholic missionaries, businessmen, and diplomats from 19th and 20th century.

The Slovene Ethnographic Museum keeps the Egyptian collection, donated in 1843 by Anton Laurin; the Easter Sudan collection, donated in 1850 by Ignacij Knoblehar; the Anton Codelli collection from Togo, Nigeria and Cameroon brought in 1912–1914; the Pygmy collection donated by Paul Schebesta. The Velenje Museum collection was acquired in 1971 from František Foit, Czech academic sculptor who lived two decades in Tanzania and Kenya. The collection in the Koroška Regional Museum, however, was donated in 1977 by Franc Tretjak who spent nearly 20 years in Africa as an economic consultant of the United Nations.

Velenje Museum 2006 Foit's collection.jpgFoit's collection, Velenje Museum

Special projects

In the context of the EU-funded project SWICH the Slovene Ethnographic Museum conducted an innovative ethnographic research that confronted the legacies of the Slovenian collectors of African art with the experience of today's African Slovenes in the exhibition Africa & Slovenia. A Web of People and Objects.

In 2019–2020 the above museum institutions have prepared a traveling exhibition Africa of the Three Museums that for the first time presented to the public their African collections as an important museological phenomenon. See also the the information on another joint project, the East Asian collections research.

Articles in category "African collections"

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