Haitian Artwork in the Dominican Republic

Sosua is a wonderful little bay that is located near Puerta Plata, one of 3 major (ish) airports in the country. There are many tourist things to do there, most of which are centered around the beach (as you would expect.) There was, however a very odd museum at the top of a hill that housed a massive amount of artwork that was collected by a German guy in his own home on top of a hill that resembles a very strange castle.

There are many different types of art located inside the museum, but one thing we see over and over again are these busts

There are a lot of these inside the poorly maintained museum that isn't really a museum so much as it is a collection of oddities. The guild (who spoke very little English and of course zero Thai) told me that all of the busts were made by Haitian artists and this was my first exposure to Haitian art.... so that is pretty cool

I think in total there was about a dozen of these things and most of them were made out of some sort of stone. There were some that were made out of wood and unfortunately the building was not climate controlled or ever protected from rain for the most part.

I at first suspected that they were cement molds because many times "stone" etchings are passed on in Thailand as being art but in all actuality they were simply made of cement and there are thousands of the same piece all over the world. Many of them end up in Pier 1 for sale for 20x cost. However, these were not cement, they are a massive rock that was meticulously and I presume very slowly chipped down to their final form. I think this is extremely impressive that someone has that sort of vision and patience.

These are all privately owned and I can't imagine how long it must have taken to transport them. Some of them were on the third floor and like i said, there is no elevator or even electricity in this museum. I suppose we don't need to worry about anyone stealing them because they weigh as much as a small star.

Shame that they are not better preserved - nor are they for sale (we asked, even though we wouldn't buy a 7,000 pound sculpture while on vacation)... There are many other types of art there, made by people from all over the world. I will post more of it later. For now this is already too long and I suspect people have stopped reading. :P