Josef Herman was delighted in the 1970s with the acquisition of this marvellous little figure, which he was told was from the collection of a curator of a French museum. He enjoyed shedding light on it so that the shadow cast on the wall resembled that of a colossus, and rejoiced at how deceptive a photograph would prove as an indication of its small size - indeed the tiny carving encompasses all the monumentality and abstraction so admired in Dogon sculpture.