Fragments of the Invisible: The René and Odette Delenne Collection of Congo Sculpture

Fragments of the Invisible celebrates the acquisition by the Cleveland Museum of Art in 2010 of 35 stellar works of 19th- and 20th-century Congolese art from the collection of René and Odette Delenne of Brussels. The book, which accompanies an exhibition at the museum, explores the fragmentary nature of African works in Western collections and sheds light on how, in their original settings, many works connected with the invisible world of spirits and deities. Many of the objects have never been published or exhibited before.

Constantine Petridis, a member of the Belgian Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences, is curator of African Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art and adjunct professor of Art History at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.