Nick Stanley Knihy

The book delves into the significant impact of Asmat art from a remote West Papuan society on the global stage, examining the history of major collections and the motivations behind their acquisition. It highlights the relationships between collectors and the local artists, as well as the involvement of various cultural figures, including anthropologists and missionaries. The work showcases the ongoing evolution of Asmat art, particularly the integration of women's weaving with traditional men's crafts, illustrating its resilience and relevance amidst social changes.

A timely study of an important, but often overlooked collector of early Melanesian objects and a pioneering anthropologist of his time, providing important contextual material for many of the objects collected by Codrington now in the British Museum, The Pitt Rivers Museum and the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge.

Walter Edward Guinness (1880-1944), the first Lord Moyne, was an Anglo-Irish politician, businessman and explorer.