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to create this impressive work of art that was also sacred to its creators: the people of Rurutu claimed it was made from pua keni wood (fagraea berteriana) that is native to the island of eastern Polynesia, while scientists claimed it was made from sandalwood. If it were the latter, then the object was made outside Rurutu and was not homegrown. Did this beautiful cultural treasure accompany people who came from beyond French Polynesia, perhaps from Hawai‘i? I also learned that Pablo Picasso had two copies of this statue made (artists Roland Penrose and Henry
modern, but you can’t be both” (Mellow 1968 ). The author and art collector Gertrude Stein succinctly formulated a contrast between the modern and the museum. The original context is uncertain; but the words were said either as a critical comment on MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art, in Manhattan in New York, which wanted to take over her collection, or as a justification for why Pablo Picasso’s portrait of her went to the nearby Met, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, instead. But are modernity and the museum really mutually exclusive? Perhaps Stein was inspired by the