Extremely rare medicine mask made of wood with... Lot 26

Extremely rare medicine mask made of wood with thick traces of natural pigments in places, old brown patina and marks of use. It presents a face with surrealist features, the face extended by a trunk ending in a hand with fan-shaped fingers and two stylized teeth at the corner of the mouth. Dan, We-Wobe, Liberia, late 19th or early 20th century. H: 27 cm. Provenance: - Former Paul-Louis Modeste collection, France. - Former Guy Montbarbon collection, Paris. Note: This mask is one of the rare examples of this type in existence, one of which (from the Charles Ratton collection) is present in "Les statues meurent aussi", a film by Alain Resnais, Ghislain Cloquet and Chris Manken. Released in 1953. This mask was probably used or worn by a healer; it evokes his totem animal, the elephant, whose trunk, ending in the hand, detects the plants to be used to heal his patients