Papua New Guinea Sepik Art Standing Carved Sculpture with Shell Beard. Depicts a bug-eyed male figure with a beard made of many individual seashells, carved in a solid piece out of a wooden base, with a supportive stand running from the base up into the back of the figure and small hook-like protrusions coming from the spine above that. 

Size: 10 x 7 x 54 in. 

#7009 . 

Papua New Guinea is a country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and its offshore islands in Melanesia. It shares its only land border with Indonesia to the west and it is directly adjacent to Australia to the south and the Solomon Islands to the east. Archaeological evidence indicates that humans first arrived in Papua New Guinea around 42,000 to 45,000 years ago, in one of the earliest waves of human migration from Africa. There are 839 known languages of Papua New Guinea, making it the most linguistically diverse country in the world. At the national level, after being ruled by three external powers since 1883, including nearly 60 years of Australian administration starting during World War I, Papua New Guinea established its sovereignty in 1975, becoming an independent Commonwealth realm with the British monarch as its leader. Papua New Guinea is world-famous for its tribal art, particularly from along the Sepik River, one of the most profuse and diverse art-producing regions of the world. The numerous different tribes living along the river produce magnificent wood carvings, clay pottery, and other arts and crafts. Different areas along the Sepik produce so many distinct art styles that it can take an experienced museum curator to be visually able to distinguish individual styles. The Sepik area is most well known for its sculptural masks, shields, exaggerated humanoid figures, and other artifacts like garamut drums, formed from long, hollowed-out tree trunks carved into the shape of various totem animals. Many of the best collections of these are held in overseas museums, and are identified as being in the first wave of contemporary art primarily from the capital city of Port Moresby. The oldest pieces, which were originally used solely for ritual and personal purposes by tribespeople before the tourist industry emerged around them, are considered particularly valuable and rare.