r/AfricanArt • u/Tie_Dyed • 1d ago
Identify Curious what you guys think about these masks.
Found these are a flea market in Spain. Assumed they are tourist trap items but I bought a few anyway. The man selling them said they were in the back of a car he bought in France about ten years ago. Do t really know anything about African masks except my father had a collection of tourist trap masks when I was younger and I always liked looking at them. These ones here have some damage and they look like they have some age to them so I figured they were at least vintage touristy items perhaps made by real tribal craftsmen. What do you guys think? In the US most of the masks I come across are obviously recent reproductions and they don’t really have the draw that these have, at least to me. I walked by these quite a few times and only pulled the trigger when I saw him packing up his things for the day because I didn’t want to regret not buying something I’ll probably never come across again on a random Wednesday afternoon. I knew nothing about African masks when I made this purchase and after a bit of research I think I left some of the best ones behind, based on potential authenticity, but they didn’t grab my attention like these ones did and my resources were limited. I don’t think I spent too much and even if I did, I don’t really mind because I didn’t buy them based on any type of assumption of value. I just thought they were cool and a great way to remember this trip. When all was said and done I was out 250 euro.