Currently offered at auction by the online auction website Catawiki is a Phantom shield originating from Papua New Guinea.

Catawiki was founded in 2008 and is the most-visited curated marketplace in Europe for special hard-to-find objects, offering over 75,000 objects for auction each week, across multiple categories such as collectables, art, design, jewellery, watches, classic cars and more.

The shield offered is noted on the auction listing as originating from Wahgi Valley and Upper Sepik in Papua New Guinea, made of wood measuring 130cm x 34cm x 3cm in good condition. The shield is described as:

From the 1980s to the 1990s, the Phantom reappeared on battle shields during a renewed period of inter-tribal fighting in parts of Papua New Guinea’s highlands. For a brief period, the Wahgi people of Western Highlands Province revived old battle shields and repainted them with new designs that transformed the shields into communicative forms. By incorporating the Ghost’s image onto a shield, warriors hoped to capture its symbolic power and instill fear among their opponents.

The shied depicts an image of the Phantom in a standing pose hand painted on the front. The Phantom is seen holding a gun in one hand and an axe in the other hand, with the word ‘Phantom‘ seen at the top. Images of the shield as seen on the auction listing can be seen below.

These shields are traditionally seen on display in museums or galleries and don’t appear for sale too often. The shield seen above would certainly be an excellent addition to any Phantom collection.

The auction listing for the Phantom shield on the Catawiki website can be found HERE

---