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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Angelique Chrisafis in Paris

French couple take dealer to court for share of African mask’s €4.2m sale price

carved pale wooden mask with long, thin oval-shaped face and thick hair attached around the chin
The ‘Ngil’ mask, made by the Fang people of Gabon, was sold at auction in Montpellier, France, for €4.2m in March 2022. Photograph: Pascal Guyot/AFP/Getty Images

A retired French couple who sold an African mask to a secondhand goods dealer for €150 (£130) have gone to court for a share of the proceeds after the mask fetched €4.2m (£3.7m) at auction.

But campaigners insist that the rare artefact instead should be returned to Gabon, in a case that has raised questions over Africa’s cultural heritage looted by colonial France.

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