This site is undergoing a major rearrangement. Expect broken links.
Over the last few years, I helped Prof. Antoinette Maget-Dominicé (LMU, München) with provenience research on pictures by Hans Erni, which were thought to be lost since their initial exhibition in 1949.
Exhibition at the Swiss Museum of Transport.
See here.
I am going to present at the conference “Provenienz und Geschichtswissenschaften” on the 8th Novemeber in Berne.
The presentation will be held in German with French translation. It is about human remains and provenience research and the title is “Menschliche Überreste als Sammelobjekte: An der Grenze zwischen Objekt und Subjekt”.
For more information, click here: infoclio.ch.
12.07.2019: I was quoted in an article by Aude-May Lepasteur in the Swiss newspaper “La Liberté”. Sadly, the article is behind a paywall.
Les musées, dernières demeures (La Liberté).
The defence of my dissertation was held on 23rd of May, 2019.
14.02.2019: The books “Boti” and “Les Dan”, on which I did some copy-editing, have been celebrated during festivities honouring the sculptor Sabu bi Boti. Boti was the protagonist of the eponymous book, in which the renowned artist is portrayed and the creation of a mask is documented in detail. The mask is in the possession of the Rietberg Museum in Zurich where it can be admired in the open storage section.
UNE RECONNAISSANCE NATIONALE POUR LE SCULPTEUR DU MASQUE ZAOULI (PATRIMOINE MONDIAL DE L’UNESCO).
19.06.2018: Here’s another book I did some of the copy-editing on. It is about the famous wood carver Sahou bi Boti (or Sabu bi Boti) and how he creates his splendid masks. The book was written by Eberhard and Barbara Fischer as well as Eberhard Fischer’s parents, Ulrike and Hans Himmelheber. At the time of its first publication in German in 1993, it was one of the first publications of its kind: A monography on a traditional, west african artist.
The book contains a detailed account of the creation of the mask depicted on the cover, which is housed today at the Museum Rietberg in Zurich.
The book is now published for the first time in French.
Just like “Les Dan”, this book is published through a cooperation of the Museum Rietberg in Zurich and the Fondation Koble des Mandé Sud in Ivory Coast.
Available at the shop of the Museum Rietberg.
24.03.2018: The book “Les Dan” by Hans and Ulrike Himmelheber, a French translation of the German book “Die Dan” has been published. In the 1950’s the anthropologists Hans and Ulrike Himmelheber made many trips in Liberia to study the Dan (or Yacouba) culture. It is an interesting insight into Dan society in the 1950’s. The book has been translated into French for the benefit of connoisseurs of african art, amongst whom Dan masks and other wood carvings are highly appreciated, as well as to make this interesting historical document accessible to the French-speaking Dan in Ivory Coast (Côte d’Ivoire). The book is published through a cooperation of the Museum Rietberg in Zurich and the Fondation Koble des Mandé Sud in Ivory Coast.
I helped with the copy-editing of the French translation.
Available at the shop of the museum Rietberg.
12.12.2017: My research project has been reported on in the magazine of the Swiss National Foundation:
Gesammelte Gebeine (Deutsch)
The Bone Collectors (English)
Musées: des ossements embarrassants
Last updated on: 2024-05-20