Zimbabwe Shona Sculpture Scam

One of the most powerful tools in authentication is the process photograph — an image taken during the creation of a work, showing the artist’s hand in direct contact with the stone. When such photographs exist, they transform provenance from an abstract claim into a visible, verifiable fact. This post presents exactly that: a side-by-side comparison of an authentic Bernard Matemera sculpture with a fake of the same composition, anchored by a remarkable set of photographs documenting Matemera creating the original work during a workshop residency in Cadier en Keer, the Netherlands, in 1998. The Composition: Bird-Mother The subject is one of Matemera’s signature forms — a bird-human hybrid in a hunched, self-contained posture, the great curving beak sweeping downward toward the body, the form revealing itself as female — two breasts clearly articulated beneath the beak. The composition is closed and self-contained, simultaneously powerful and tender. It is unmistakably Matemera: no o...

Introduction This is the story of how I fell prey to a scam of people in Zimbabwe selling fake first generation sculptures, most notably Sailot William Ziira (also known as Sailot Ziira), the grandson from the famous sculptor Henry Munyaradzi, and Taguma Andrew Mukomberanwa (also known as Taguma Mukomberanwa), the son from the famous sculptor Nicholas Mukomberanwa. I have divided up the story in two parts, one about Sailot, and the second part about Taguma. These people are doing incredible damage to their heritage, and also to every sculptor in Zimbabwe as it undermines the trust. We need to collectively stop them. Please don't do any business with them. Sailot William Ziira / Sailot Ziira On Saturday September 11th 2021 I had my first contact with Sailot, after having been introduced to him by a sculptor I have known since 1999. This sculptor is also befriended with a buyer from USA, who got contacted by Sailot on Facebook about a white Zimbabwean collector named Ben Brumelaar se...