[MSN] CORNWALL- A series of tall, graceful statues have traveled a long way to make their debut at the Insiders/Outsiders Art Gallery in the new "All About Africa" exhibition, but soon they will return home.

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  CORNWALL-A series of tall, graceful statues have traveled a long way 
to make their debut at the Insiders/Outsiders Art Gallery in the new 
"All About Africa" exhibition, but soon they will return home.


The show, a celebration of African art and art inspired by "the dark 
continent," as it is sometimes called, prominently features nine Vigango 
burial totems that have recently been involved in a scandal.
The obelisk-shaped items are from the estate of art collectors and 
producer/screenwriters Lewis M. Allen and his wife, Jay Presson Allen. 
The two purchased the totems for just a few dollars each on the street 
in Kenya in the 1960s while living in Africa. It seems they did not know 
they were purchasing sacred burial totems that had been stolen from 
their rightful villages by those out to make a few dollars off the 
tourists.
The totems were displayed in the couple's Park Avenue apartment for 
decades. It was only when the daughter of the late couple, Brooke Allen, 
offered to show them in gallery owner Kelly Gingras' latest show that 
Mrs. Gingras began her research and realized the totems were ill-gotten.
"Last year I went to New York City and saw the totems and said I'd love 
to show them," she recalled. She brought them home in her car, went 
inside her Cornwall home and Googled "Vigango." The search returned more 
than 30 pages of sites asking for the return of the totems to the 
Mijikenda people of the Kenyan coast. It seems that hundreds of them 
have been stolen over the years.
The gallery owner recalled the moment she found out the states were 
ill-gotten property. "My heart just sunk. I went in and looked at them 
and thought, 'Some way or another you guys are going home." When she 
called Ms. Allen, the young woman was shocked at the totems' true origin 
and readily agreed to return the artifacts but implored the gallery 
owner to show them anyway and teach local children about them while the 
two women worked to return them to Kenya. Mrs. Gingras raced back over 
to where the statues were and shouted, "'You're going home.' They looked 
much happier from that moment," she said.
The two women and the estate manager, Peter Jung, set out to find 
someone who could facilitate the statues' safe return. They eventually 
reached Tanzanian Ambassador Charles Stith and Kenyan Ambassador Peter 
Nicholas Rateng'Oginga Ogego. These men, thrilled to be getting the 
totems back, agreed to let Mrs. Gingras display the artifacts through 
the end of June, when they will visit the area for a formal hand-over 
ceremony on a yet to be announced date.
The totems, which can fetch between $7,000 and $10,000 on the open 
market, have been robbed from graveyards for years. The chipped-wood 
carvings are long skinny figures, most with ornate faces and delicately 
patterned and carved robes. They are between four and six feet high and 
about six inches wide, and some tilt to the right or left from years of 
being exposed to the elements. The Vigango are erected for high-ranking 
members of a secret society, called the gohu. The height can be 
dependent on the status of the society member. Otherworldly, they look 
like they are in mourning.
It is considered bad luck to remove the statues from their homes in the 
Mijikenda graveyards, and the people of that region believe bad luck can 
befall both the offender and the family members.
It doesn't seem that the Allen family met this fate, however. In his 
storied career, Mr. Allen had writing or producing credits on the movies 
"Lord of the Flies" and "Fahrenheit 451" and on the Broadway productions 
of "Annie," "My One and Only" and "A Few Good Men." Mrs. Allen logged 
credits in the movie versions of Alfred Hitchcock's "Marnie," "The Prime 
of Miss Jean Brodie," "Cabaret," "Funny Lady" and the remake of "The 
Thomas Crown Affair."
Also in the show are more pieces from the Allen collection and from the 
collection of John Clayton, a documentarian for National Geographic and 
an admirer of 1960s art from the Congo. He will donate the proceeds from 
any sales to the Africare charity.
Cornwall photographic artist and entrepreneur (he co-owns Kent's 
Northern Exposure photography gallery) Lazlo Gyorsok was on hand to view 
the African art. He particularly enjoyed Mrs. Gingras' curatorial 
decision to hang a painting of a woman in a compromising position with 
the Marquis de Sade next to one depicting "The Last Supper" through the 
eyes of a 1960s African artist.
There are also works from five American artists that reference Africa: 
oils by Bernard Hoyes, found sculpture by Lucy Krupenye, watercolors by 
Joan Palmer, creatures and totems by Stewart Clayton and Michael 
Theise's bull elephant and modern trompe l'oeil paintings.
At the exhibit's opening last weekend, Mr. Theise's heavy pieces on 
masonite were being admired by Vance Jaffers, an actor of "One Life To 
Live" fame. The Brookfield-dwelling thespian is a longtime friend of the 
painting's owner, famed acting coach Phillip Tavonatti, and Mr. Jaffers 
was there on his behalf. If his painting sells, Mr. Tavonatti will 
donate the proceeds to African charity "School of Dreams."
Ms. Krupenye was on hand to discuss her found object, wall-hanging 
sculptures. The surprising discrepancy between her petite, blond, 
girlish appearance and the totemic sculptures she creates from found 
objects, including car parts such as catalytic converters and flattened 
tailpipes, and even deer bones she finds in the woods, is charming.
The Wilton-based sculptor's pieces have an African sensibility that is 
not entirely unlike the Vigango totems. "I grew up in a house surrounded 
by African art, my parents were collectors," she said of her frame of 
reference.
Her pieces, which all have a sort of warm, protective and motherly feel 
and shape, bear names such as "AuTotem," for one made of car parts, 
"Guardian" and "Le Reine Rouge," or "the red queen," for one made of 
rusted parts that have taken on a rusty red patina.
Ms. Krupenye was especially moved by the story of the Vigango. "When I 
first saw them, I was immediately drawn to them. They looked like 
something that could have been in the house I grew up in. When I heard 
the story my first thoughts were that the same thing could have happened 
to my parents without their realizing it. They bought art in the same 
way. It's extraordinary that they are going to be retuned," she said.
The more far-reaching message of the Vigango's journey will be delivered 
to younger people who visit the gallery with their school classes, Mrs. 
Gingras hopes. "If we hit young minds they'll absorb this story and in 
the future when they travel to Africa, or any area where artifacts are 
black marketed, they won't buy them, they'll think twice and do their 
homework," she said.
The gallery is at 131 Kent Rd. at the intersection of Routes 7 and 45. 
The show is up through June 24. Call 860-672-6631 for more information.

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