CADEAU SENGHOR

A Gift from Senghor. The Trajectory of Four Carved Ivory Tusks. The collection of African art at the National Museum of Fine Arts (Museu Nacional de Belas Artes, MNBA) in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) includes four carved ivory tusks. According to MNBA specialists (Guimarães Dias, 1983; Barretto, 2016; Silva, 2025), these objects were a diplomatic gift from Léopold Sédar Senghor during his official visit to Brazil in September 1964. This research project examines the circulation of African artworks within the context of postcolonial diplomatic gifts and traces the provenance of the ivories from their production to their museum conservation and exhibition. A detailed stylistic analysis in the Atlantic context complements this approach, taking into account both artistic lineages and their cultural contexts.