African Art that was too sophisticated to have been created by African hands.

The Olokun Head discovered in Nigeria in 1910 and initially regarded by European scholars as too great a masterpiece to have originated from Africa.

The debate around the head,   at the time of its discovery,  just illustrates the  sheer racism of the West (and its art world) toward the Other. A racism that continues today, even as Africa is being recolonised.

The accepted Art world narrative is the the story of Progress from Primitive African to the  Western Modern. " Primitive" African art was good enough to ' borrow' from by the Great Modernist Masters like Picasso but not taken seriously as an Art that was comparable to  what  the West was creating. 

It has take a long time for the West to accept the fact the African hands could produce Art that was more sophisticated than even European Art during Renaissance 

 Please notice the use of the word "artefact" for a work of obvious Art, in the report below. 

Ever since a pure copper sculpture was found buried in a palm grove near the Nigerian city of Ife, experts from the West have argued that the artefact was a fake that was too sophisticated to have been created by African hands.

Found in 1910, the "Olokun head" left Western curators doubting that such a technically advanced work of art could have been created by indigenous people. 

At the time of discovery, the head was considered too great a masterpiece to have been created by indigenous African artists – a reflection of prevailing attitudes of the early 20th century. Some Europeans even theorised that the work was a remnant from the lost city of Atlantis. A spokeswoman for the British Museum said when the head travelled to the West, it caused a huge stir because "it flew in the face of Western perceptions" (of African heritage and cultural achievements).

It is now accepted by the curatorial community that the advanced artistic techniques used to create the sculpture were "more advanced than those of Renaissance Italy, and comparable to those of [the artist] Donatello".

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/sculpture-deemed-too-complex-for-africa-could-be-real-after-all-1961485.html