A graduate of Harvard, he journeyed to New Guinea on an expedition for the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology to study the Dani tribe. In other words, he pursued art instead of business or politics. The canoe became swamped and overturned. The 23-year-old heir to the Rockefeller fortune was gone without a trace. NY Daily News Michael C. Rockefeller, son of Nelson Rockefeller, adjusts his camera before taking pictures of Papuan men in New Guinea in 1961. After restocking, they set off once again on the 17th of November 1961, alongside two young local guides. Despite being the fifth son of Nelson Rockefeller, the then-governor of New York, as well as the great-grandson of the robber baron John D. Rockefeller, Michael was more of a camera-and-paint guy than a pen-and-tie guy. Michael Rockefeller, 23-year-old member of the esteemed Rockefeller family, traveled to New Guinea in 1961 to study the tribes living there. In November 1961, Rockefeller and a Dutch anthropologist were exploring the remote jungles of the Asmat region of … In 1961, Michael Rockefeller went missing on the island of New Guinea. In 1961, Michael Rockefeller worked on a documentary film about a remote area of New Guinea, and when shooting was finished, he wanted to go back to see the Asmat tribe — for art, for exploration, to collect, and learn. In addition, he had a direct relationship to the Rockefeller family, his father was a famous politician and banker. While on a trip to document native New Guinea tribes and collect carvings for his father's art museum, the boat he was traveling in capsized. An off-Broadway play, The Man Who Ate Michael Rockefeller, portrayed Rockefeller as the oddity, focusing on the Asmat tribe’s reaction to a newcomer rather than his fascination with them.

It’s been long speculated that Michael Rochefeller, an heir to the enormous Rockefeller fortune, befell an ill fate after making contact with this tribe. A 1973 photo of war chief Ajam, of the Dani Tribe of New Guinea, who told missionaries he killed U.S. anthropologist Michael Rockefeller in 1961, and … Michael Rockefeller was an American researcher in the field of ethnography and anthropology. Buoyed by the success, Michael Rockefeller returned to the nearest town of Agat so that he and his companion would stock up on supplies and return to get more items from the Asmat tribes. The fate of the ethnographer is shrouded in mystery, because hedisappeared in 1961 during an expedition to New Guinea. FASCINATING photos of a reclusive cannibal tribe who allegedly murdered and ate a Rockefeller heir nearly 60 years ago have emerged.

Michael Rockefeller was the youngest son of the famed New York Rockefellers. AP Nov. 19, … Portraits show the … He was on a canoe in the area with fellow anthropologist Rene Wassing and two guides. He made a brief diversion to make contact with the Asmat in southern New Guinea—their art had captured his imagination.