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A Thing of Mystery

Lying in its box - Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen - Photography Cees de Jonge

Lying in its box - Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen - Photography Cees de Jonge

There it lies, in a box in the depot at Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen. Its head resting on a cushion made from foam. That way it stays safe (for it is extremely fragile).

Have you ever seen anything like this before? A human-looking face, with big, bulging eyes and a grimace (or is it a smile?). Next to the head we see two human looking hands. If we focus on the details, we can see that it has long nails and that the head is covered sparsely by hair. You might be wondering right now “is this real?”