A Tusk, a Head and an Ancestor Board Provenance Questions in Surrealist Collections

Using three non-European objects currently housed in Edinburgh museums—a Papua New Guinea ancestor board, a Māori carved head, and an engraved walrus tusk—as case studies, this article examines the complex provenance histories of works that passed through the collections of prominent surrealists André Breton, Paul Éluard, and Roland Penrose between the 1920s and 2000s. The research reveals how surrealists acquired art from Oceania and the American Northwest Coast through extensive networks including established dealers, museum deaccessions, flea markets, and occasionally direct contact with source communities via intermediaries like Jacques Viot. The article addresses a central paradox in surrealist collecting: While maintaining a vocal anticolonial stance and publicly opposing colonial exhibitions, a number of surrealists simultaneously participated in and profited from art markets fundamentally enabled by colonial violence. This study contributes to scholarship on the colonial dimensions of modernist collecting practices and argues that current institutional caretakers of such collections must confront these violent histories and grapple with questions of restitution and repatriation.