Carved wooden mask with two horns, a large nose, smiling lips and a mustache. The mask has six holes along the edges, through which white elastic crisscrosses the back for wearing. Part b is a separate wooden phallus.

• Iconographic Meaning

  Mask represents Carlos Castro (1945–2011) who was a Portuguese television personality and journalist, mainly covering gossip items about musicians, actors and celebrities. He became well known after he had 'come out' on television. In January 2011 he was found castrated and bludgeoned to death in a New York City hotel. His boyfriend, a 21-year old male model, eventually confessed to the castration and murder.

• History Of Use

  Carnival mask. The mask makers of Lazarim have their own unique individual styles and distinctive repertoire of character types; José António da Silva Costa specializes in caricatures of public personalities.

• Narrative

  This mask, when it was worn during carnival, had a penis carving (now part b) as its nose piece. However, in order to sell the piece, the artist cut the original penis off and replaced it with a more benign one, as the original was thought to be too controversial to sell. Shelton was able to acquire the original 'penis-nose' from the artist when purchasing the mask.

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• Type of Item mask
• Culture Portuguese
• Material wood
• Measurements height 51.5 cm, width 20.5 cm, depth 21.0 cm (part a) height 35.5 cm, diameter 5.5 cm (part b)

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• Creator Jose Antonio da Silva Costa
• Field Collector Anthony A. Shelton
• Previous Owner Anthony A. Shelton
• Received from Museum of Anthropology Exhibitions Budget, Anthony A. Shelton

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• Made in Lazarim
• Collected in Portugal

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• Creation Date during 2011
• Collection Date between 2011 and 2012
• Ownership Date before September 17, 2012
• Acquisition Date on September 17, 2012

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• Condition good
• Accession Number 2956/0242 a-b