Mezcala, Bundesstaat Guerrero, Mexiko. Stein Totenkopffigur aus Stein. 300-100 n. Chr. 3,5 cm. „Michel Vinaver Coll“. Spanische Importlizenz.

"After all, our present, is also the memory that remains from the past of humanity”.

Said by Michel Vinaver at the interview 9th January 2022, at the radio "France Culture".

Skull Figure.

CULTURE: Mezcala, Estado de Guerrero, México.

PERIOD: 300-100 AD.

MATERIAL: Stone.

DIMENSIONS: Height 3.5 centimeters.

PROVENANCE:

- Possibly collection of pioneering collector Charles Eugène Espéridion Goupil, 1831-1895. France, possibly acquired from Eugène Boban.

- Collection of Michel Vinaver, French writer and dramatist (Paris 1927-2022)

- Collection established between 1954/55 and 1965 by Michel Vinaver and his brother and listed in France in an inventory carried out on June 21, 1977 by Mr. Paul Brunet, expert at French customs.

- To his children, Anouk, Barbara, Delphine and Ivan Vinaver, 2022.

- French art Market, 2022.

CONDITION: Good condition. Without restorations. See photos.

Provenance:

Michel Vinaver (born Michel Grinberg; 13 January 1927) is a French writer and dramatist. He was born in Paris to parents who had emigrated from Russia. He is the father of actress Anouk Grinberg. In 2006 he was awarded the Grand prix du théâtre de l'Académie française.

Vinaver, perhaps to differentiate this activity from his work as a top executive at the Gillette house, was its general director between 1966 and 1982, a post he left to become a professor of theater studies at the University of Paris III and later in Paris VIII, until his retirement -, he began to publish works – The Lataume novels in 1950 and The objector in 1952 – while he became friends, through the mail, with Albert Camus. A friend from work introduced him to the theater in 1954 and from then on he began to explore dramatic writing until he became one of the essential names in French dramaturgy. Since The Koreans, from 1955, premiered by Robert Planchon, Vinaver's writing has regularly hit the stage. Serreau, Vitez, Francon will work on his texts in the following years. His work is not abundant, about thirty plays, which he writes over half a century. Always attentive to the world around him, he becomes a lucid witness of the second part of the 20th century.

Additional Provenance "Eugène Goupil".

Some of the objects have attached a tag of the Eugène Goupil collection. We know that some of remains of the Goupil collection went into the French art market

Charles Eugène Espéridion Goupil (December 14, 1831, Mexico - October 24, 1895), is a French businessman, philanthropist and collector of Franco-Mexican origin. He acquired an important collection of antiquities and Mexican manuscripts or printed documents and donated the last to the Bibliotèque National de France, making the Mexican collection of this institution one of the most important in the world. The Trocadéro ethnography museum also inherited some of his pieces.

Driven by the desire to preserve and publicize the heritage of "his Indian ancestors" "in authentic form", he vows to build a collection for the benefit of science. In 1888, he bought the collection of antiquities from the antiquities dealer Eugène Boban, which he lent to him for the World's Fair of 1889. Through Boban, in 1889 he acquired a large number of manuscripts and rare engravings by Joseph Marius Alexis Aubin. The latter had in his time acquired many pieces from the Boturini collection, confiscated by the viceroy of New Spain. He had brought his collection to France in 1840 and put it up for sale at the end of the century due to financial difficulties. Boban drew up the catalog of his collection, which appeared in 1891, and undertook the publication of certain manuscripts.

In accordance with his wishes, his widow donated the best part of the collection to the Bibliotèque National de France in 1898. Part of the Boban collection was donated to the Trocadéro ethnographic museum. The Goupil family kept antiques and documents of minor importance, which will be sold until at least the middle of the 20th century and they are the ones that were acquired by Michel Vinaver and now sold here.

Eugène Boban:

Eugène Goupil in 1888 bought the collection of antiquities from the antiquities dealer Eugène Boban and the type of the tag present in our pieces is very similar to the ones used by Eugène Boban and therefore our collection is possibly coming from Eugène Boban collection that was sold to Goupil.

Eugène Boban or Boban-Duvergé (1834–1908) was a French antiquarian. He was the official archaeologist of the court of Maximilian I of Mexico, and a member of the French Scientific Commission in Mexico. From time to time he sold crystal skulls, one which is now in the Musée du Quai Branly and another in the British Museum. In 1891, he organized and published the Aubin-Goupil Collection of manuscripts, bought in 1889 by Eugène Goupil and now in the Bibliothèque nationale. Ethnological objects from his collection were sold at Paris in 1908.



Notes:

- The piece includes authenticity certificate.
- The piece includes Spanish Export License (Passport for European Union) - If the piece is destined outside the European Union a substitution of the export permit should be requested, can take between 1-2 weeks maximum.
- The seller guarantees that he acquired this piece according to all national and international laws related to the ownership of cultural property. Provenance statement seen by Catawiki.