Emblems of swords with lions of fierce teeth, crowns decorated with spiders, robust traditional seats and jaws taken from enemies, but also glasses, airplanes or modern shotguns and delicate pieces of filigree. And all of them of solid or golden gold. More than 300 pieces … of jewelry and cult objects of the Akan culture dazzle since Friday at the headquarters of the Barrié Foundationin La Coruña. For the first time they have abandoned the Liaunig Museum of Carintia (Austria) to travel beyond the Germanic borders, to Spain. Only the Knauf Museum of Baviera had had the privilege, until now, to host these real treasures loaded with symbolism, history and identity, from Western Africa.
«It is for me a joy and a great honor to see that my parents’ collection arrives for the first time to Spain to be exposed. The exhibition at the Barié Foundation does not only serve as a testimony of the extraordinary beauty and cultural relevance of African gold pieces, but also gives us an opportunity to promote dialogue between cultures, ”he said in the presentation of the exhibition Peter Liaunigdirector of the Liaunig Museum, convinced that his father, who died in 2023, would be proud to be able to show “the best” pieces of his collection at the Barrié Foundation and that his legacy charges new life.
The Austrian Herbert Liaunig (1945-2023) began collecting art of the culture of the Akan, originally from Ghana and Ivory Coast, in Zurich. For years he was acquiring pieces in the gallery of René David (1928-2015) and his wife and after the death of the antakers, his son Jean David He offered the complete collection. He understood 400 objects that his father had gathered since 1957.
René David had lived in Ghana with the Ashanti and throughout 40 years of travel through Mali, Cameroon, the Congo and Ivory Coast had been buying objects of art and treasured an exclusive collection. “We had no colonial interests, it was all legal,” said his son during the presentation of the sample. Therefore, he adds, no claim for restitution by countries of origin has reached, “but, of course, we are very aware of that problem.” According to Jean David, he donated some of the pieces to African states and created “the first museum in intercultural Africa.”
This Austrian collection is one of the most important in the world in this area, together with those of the British Museum in London, the Houston Museum of Fine Arts and the Gold Museum of Africa of Cape Cape.
“Liaunig’s collection is distinguished from other collections not only by the thematic singularity and technical and artistic exquisiteness of his works, but because it is the result of a prolonged interaction over time and extremely respectful of the producing people of these works of art,” says Carmen Arias Romero, director of the Barrie Foundation.
The majority of the 300 objects of the exhibition, which will remain open until July 13, are dated in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, although Launig attracts attention to a small piece of a man on a table. «We do not know exactly what it means, but scientists believe it is probably 200 or 300 years ago. And there are other old ones too, although sometimes if a king dies, they take ancient gold, they melt and produce a new art for a new king, ”he explains. Hence the oldest pieces are the ones that have the most carat, he indicates.
The director of the museum and the gallery owner have traveled the various rooms of the sample, explaining the rich symbolism of these pieces of crafts from the Akan, a people distributed by different African traditional states and attached by the common TWI language. The king never speaks directly with people, only through a spokesman, David points out in front of several of his canes with symbolic images. “People, in the place, know exactly what it means,” he says as he explains that talking is an art for the Akan people and there is the figure of the stories counters that put on their heads a gold book cover “because all their knowledge is in their head.”
“The language is so important that if there is war and kill the enemy, they take the jaw to take their tongue and also their history,” says the gallery owner and African art expert by pointing out some of these ‘trophies’ bathed in gold in another showcase. “The power of the word is such,” the Aunig coincides, that a sentenced to death nailed small knives in his tongue before communicating the penalty “so that he cannot curse the judge.”
Their steps stop in decorated pectorals “who can open and close the soul”, to then move on to the tools of weighing the gold, with weights decorated from the same rich material. And they continue in the next room highlighting the diverse symbolism of ritual swords or animal motifs from various gold crowns, with their various readings. Each King Akan, they tell, has its own symbol as a real emblem (the lion, the elephant, the spider …) and the porcupine, of which they believe that they can launch their spikes to their enemies, represents the power of the fighters and the same people Akan, where each person is a thorn and all together an animal.
In some of the crowns there is a clear European influence and there are also pieces with Koranic texts. “They take what is powerful, which is good for others and adapt it,” says David about this town that gives great importance to the seats, which are preserved in memory of their owner for being linked to the founding myth of the Ashanti people. In the photographs that accompany the exposed chairs, the processions with the gold throne of Ghana are shown, which according to the tradition fell from the sky, donated by the gods.
It is not strange that it is precisely a golden throne that closes the exposure. His support reveals European influence, but not the real sandals shown at his feet. “The king cannot touch the ground with his bare feet,” says the expert, who reveals a last curiosity about the Akan. Among all the children of the monarch, it is a woman who names the heir. “Women cannot reign, but choose the successor,” he remarks to remember that Ghana has a queen mother.
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