Pre-Columbian, southern Peru, Huari culture, ca. 600 to 900 CE. Perhaps the finest mummy bundle from this region we have seen. Most examples have painted faces directly onto the textile bundle, while this extraordinary example was painted on a secondary section of textile attached to a wooden frame, then attached to the bundle, the nose of wood and added separately. The head is adorned with white triangular eyes with deep black pupils. The wooden face is attached to a woven "sack" tied with original strings, the upper head covered with two different textile headdresses, one a form of woven reed mat of a type we have not seen before. The interior is filled with reeds. Size: 10" W x 21" H (25.4 cm x 53.3 cm)

For the people of the Andes, death was not the end of life. It marked the transition into a new existence in the underworld. This transition was ensured through funerary rites and the careful preparation of the funerary bundle and tomb, so that society’s leaders could be transformed into ancestors.

This piece has been searched against the Art Loss Register database and has been cleared. The Art Loss Register maintains the world’s largest database of stolen art, collectibles, and antiques.

Provenance: ex-private Kansas City, Missouri, USA collection, before 2000

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#164072

Overall excellent condition with strong painted surface, textile sections intact and interior stuffing securely in place.