He was determined to find his own “primitive art,” a term that at the time smacked of superiority over non-Western art. Michael’s commitment to primitive art landed him an easy seat on the board of his father’s museum.
Michael once said: "I just want to do something that I haven't done before, and bring more art to New York."
Michael had traveled a lot before, and he had lived in Japan and Venezuela for several months. So in his graduation year, he wanted to embark on an anthropological expedition.
After speaking with representatives from the Rijksmuseum of Ethnology, Michael decided to travel to what was then Dutch New Guinea to collect art from the Asmat people who had settled there.
According to later investigations, Michael invited many researchers and documentary filmmakers to join the trip for a journey of exploration and discovery. They came to Otsjanep, the main living settlement of the Asmat people on Liangshang, where they not only took many photos but also tried to buy Bis Pillars, a beautifully carved wooden artwork, from the locals, but failed.
Michael did not give up. He continued to observe and found that many of the Asmat people's behaviors seemed to be contrary to Western social norms. He even wrote in his diary: "This place is more remote and wild than the places I have seen before." Because at this time Michael had seen the brutal wars between the Asmat people and how they hunted the heads of their enemies.
This is Michael's first trip to New Guinea.
Although he did not obtain anything valuable the first time, Michael was more eager to try and show his talents. He made a detailed plan to conduct more detailed anthropological research on Asmat, and he also planned to display Asmat art in his father's museum.
On November 19, 1961, Michael and a group of Dutch anthropologists arrived in New Guinea again by boat and approached Otsjanep along the coastline. However, their boat capsized twelve miles from the coast. However, according to records, Michael told the anthropologists that he thought he could swim over, then jumped into the water and disappeared.
Regardless of whether the boat capsized or Michael was crazy enough to swim across the twelve miles of ocean, the child was missing, neither alive nor dead.
But this guy has an enviable and powerful family background after all, so after he disappeared, the entire Rockefeller family mobilized all its forces to search for Michael's whereabouts. But after searching for half a month, nothing was found.
Michael's death caused a sensation in the media. Soon, newspapers began to publish various rumors. He must have been eaten by cannibals or sharks. Another rumor was that Michael had actually escaped the gilded cage of wealth and was living freely somewhere in the jungles of New Guinea. But whatever the rumor, the family heir who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth was gone.
However, according to later investigations, people finally figured out why this guy disappeared. He was not eaten by a shark, but was headhunted by the Asmat people.
Because there were two Dutch missionaries on the island who had lived with the Asmat people for many years and could speak the local language, the missionaries told the local authorities that they heard from the Asmat people that it was the Asmat people who killed Michael.
The following year, in 1962, the island police sent Wim van der Wall to investigate the matter. He came to the same conclusion and even obtained what the Asmat people called "Michael's skull."
In fact, Michael's murder was Asmat's revenge!
The root cause of this incident lies in the Dutch colonial government at that time.
In 1957, three years before Michael's first visit, an event occurred that left a lasting scar on the people of Otsjanep. At the time, the Dutch colonial government had just taken control of the island and had limited control over the remote Asmat tribes.
That year, a massacre took place between the two Asmat tribes of Otsjanep and Omasep, with dozens of people killed on both sides. The Dutch colonial government tried to control the situation, hoping to calm the anger of the Otsjanep tribe. But due to a lot of cultural misunderstandings, the Dutch opened fire on the Otsjanep people.
The Otsjanep people, who saw the power of guns for the first time, saw four war leaders shot dead. This incident also completely led to the Asmat people's hatred for the Bairao.
It was in this context that the people of Otsjanep stumbled upon Michael swimming towards the coast bordering their territory...
Unfortunately for Michael, the people he met were the four tribal war chiefs and their descendants who were killed by the Dutch.
Michael's death was simple, but it made the Asmat people famous all over the world and made people all over the world realize that there were still the terrifying headhunters in Irian Island.
It was because of this incident that Yang Jing learned about the Asmart headhunting tribe.
PS: I would like to thank “呼吸自在” for the reward of 100.
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