A WOOD, COPPER AND BRASS RELIQUARY FIGURE, MBULU NGULUGabon, Kotha63 cm highProvenance: Italian private collection.This kind of sculpture, with accentuated stylized anthropomorphic characters, was usually placed on the top of a container with a lid in which the bones of a high-ranking deceased were kept.The name Kota identifies different ethnic groups located in Gabon, united by some artistic concepts, including those exemplified by this figure of a reliquary.* The reliquary is accompanied by scientific analyzes of the wood which confirm a dating to the first half of the twentieth century.