*A rare monumental male statue, with a face of intense presence, whose style is reminiscent of the Ngumba fangs, and adorned with imposing and beautiful tattoos blackened by fire, which are reminiscent of the style of the Nutmu fangs, these two groups being neighbors, living on the borders of Rio Muni and Cameroon. The sculpture of the head, of the body in a standing position, and especially of the legs, with the knees slightly drawn inward, is characteristic of the Ngumba style and clearly recalls the standing Fang statue in the Museum of Ethnology in Lisbon (inv. AK 957, collected by V. Bandeira in 1968 in Nloayong), also of great size (98 cm) but not as large as our specimen, which is one of the largest Fang statues known. Another monumental statue is known, also collected in the Rio Muni region around 1900 by a Spanish Catholic mission, but also another specimen from the same hand or the same workshop as our specimen, complete, and which seems to have had articulated arms. This rare type of human-sized sculpture, perfectly authentic, as attested by the wood used and the sincerity and age of the patina, did not a priori have the function of a statue guarding relics, but would have "inhabited" an initiation society hut. In addition to the sculpture of two sculpted braids extending from the back of the head, we note another rare feature: this sculpture bears the vestiges of a beard and a pubic fleece of human hair that was fixed with resin. For a sculpture by the same hand, see : Art d'Afrique Noire p. 68, n°102, sold on March 23, 1997 by L.S.D. in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, lot 97, and referenced on the GVR website as Fang Okak. For another monumental Fang statue collected around 1900, see : Millon et Associés, Paris, sale of October 8, 2020, lot 112. For the statue in the Lisbon Museum, see: Escultura Africana em Portugal, Éd. Museu de Etnologia, Lisbon, 1985, n° 75. Fang, Ngumba or Ntumu, Equatorial Guinea or Cameroon Wood, metal, resin, hair, visible missing parts (arms and feet voluntarily amputated), old cracks (plugging at the back), beautiful and old patina. H. 145 cm Provenance : Nadine Vinot-Postry Collection,Cuernavaca. Exhibition : On view from 2011 to 2023 at the Brady Museum in Cuernavaca. *This lot is sold as a temporary import.