The ritual object was found gathering dust on top of a cupboard by the auction house's fine art expert, Philip Rance, during a routine valuation of a country house in North Wiltshire. Its value was unknown to the vendor, a descendant of the Barons Romilly, although she believed the piece had entered the family prior to 1900.
Modestly estimated at £300-500 but accurately catalogued as a tribal guardian figure from Western Africa, it attracted a great deal of interest at the sale on November 7 from the internet and on the phone, ultimately selling via the latter.
The buyer is believed to be a private collector.
Big prices for Fang sculpture were also apparent in New York last week at the November 11 sale of the African Art collection of Myron Kunin. A Fang-Betsi reliquary head from Gabon sold for $3.1m (£2m).
The sale also saw a record for any piece of African art at auction - $10.6m (£6.9m) for a Senufo female statue from the Ivory Coast or Burkina Faso, eclipsing the previous high of €5m (£3.42m) paid for a late 19th century kaolin-painted Ngil mask at Enchères Rive Gauche in June 2006.
The buyer's premium at Netherhampton Salerooms was 12.5%.
