Luba art

Luba art refers to the visual and material culture of the Luba people. Most objects were created by people living along the Lualaba River and around the lakes of the Upemba Depression, or among related peoples to the east in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The exact date of the founding of the Luba Kingdom is uncertain. According to oral tradition, the cultural hero Kalala Ilunga conquered the lands of adjacent chiefs along the Lualaba River. He and his successors were venerated as living divinities capable of great power. During the eighteenth century the Luba empire expanded eastward and southward until it reached the basins of the Sankuru and Lomami rivers. Luba art consequently varies regionally and has also influenced the art of neighboring peoples including the Hemba and the Boyo. Most of the Luba art in Western collections was originally produced in association with royal or chiefly courts and was meant to validate the power of leaders. Luba art forms are typically "delicately modeled and curvilinear, expressing serenity and introspection".^[1]

In December 2010, prestigious auctioning house Sotheby's announced that a Luba sculpture made by the legendary Master of Buli was sold for 7,100,000,00 USD in Paris.^[2] The sale made that Luba caryatid stool the second most expensive piece of African art in History.^[3][4]