2 1  Headdress, Bamum or Bamileke peoples, Cameroon, 20th century. Raffia, fibre, fabric and glass beads; 51 x 35 cm (1' 8" x 1' 2"). All beadwork images Peter Liaunig Collection 2  Dancers in Dschang, Cameroon, 1930. Photograph by Hugues Jean-Baptiste Chapoulie, Ministère de la France d’Outre-Mer. Collection Wereldmuseum, Rotterdam. The Nederlands Fotomuseum Beads fit for kings While the trade in glass beads between Europe and Africa is well known, the objects that they adorned have received less attention. The recent exhibition of a private collection of African beadwork in Austria will, according to Michael Oehrl, author of the exhibition’s catalogue, shine a welcome light on the use of glass beads in African art The Liaunig Museum in the Austrian town of Neuhaus in Carinthia mostly exhibits contemporary art, but regularly also explores other topics. The 300 or so pieces in the exhibition, ‘African Beaded Art’ came primarily from the Nigerian Yoruba people, the Bamileke and Bamum from Cameroon, and the Kuba resident in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Tutsi of Rwanda and Burundi contributed a number of works as well. A 300-page bilingual catalogue accompanied the exhibition. From the beginning of colonial trade by the Portuguese and Dutch in the 16th century, glass beads, as well as metals such as copper, were bartered for slaves and ivory and subsequently also served as currency. However, improved trade routes at the end of the 19th century made their acquisition easier, and over the course of the colonial period they became less valuable. Visually impressive in their multiplicity and brilliance of colour, these glass beads have thus far remained underappreciated At first only a few beads were used to adorn clothing and the body, but new possibilities gradually presented themselves for decorative and artistic expression. Starting around 1900, elaborate patterns began to be developed, soon becoming widespread but varying from one region to another. Visually impressive in their multiplicity and brilliance of colour, these glass beads have thus far remained underappreciated and have received little attention in ethnographic collections. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why even connoisseurs of African art are often unable to pinpoint the age of such pieces, for instance distinguishing between beads from the early 20th century and those of the 1960s or 1970s. Peter Liaunig, an architect by profession and the son of the museum’s founder, Herbert Liaunig, has accumulated his extensive collection over the past 15 years. As a child of collectors, Peter first came into contact with African art in his youth: ‘I bought my first piece of African art in Florence in 1988—a Mossi doll, small but very powerful in its unpretentiousness. My own collection actually came into being by chance because there was a small gallery of African tribal art in the street where I lived, with a special focus on Cameroon. That was where I saw beadwork for the first time. Over time, I developed a great passion for it, with the dynamism often characteristic of collectors, and I searched intensively all over the world for bead art from Africa… I was fascinated by the totally unknown, by the fact that the topic has hardly been researched.