Paris /
The sale “Quetzalcóatl, feathered snake”, a set of 40 prehispanic pieces from private European hands, raised a total of $ 3 million (60 million pesos), this one despite protests from Mexico to stop the auction. According to the house, this is “the highest amount for a Christie’s pre-Columbian art auction in Paris.”
The figure of Cihuateotl, 87 cm and dated 600-1000 AD. C, was sold below the estimated price (between 710 thousand and one million dollars). The goddess is depicted seated, with traces of white and deep red pigment.
A mask attributed to the Teotihuacan culture from 450-650 AD was also auctioned. C. for $ 526,800. It was part of the personal collection of Pierre Matisse, son of the famous painter Henri Matisse, who bought it in 1938 and, according to the catalog, kept it for more than 50 years. It was estimated between $ 420,000 and $ 640,000.
Mexico had asked to stop selling the pieces and assured that there were three “false” objects among them, including this mask.
The other two supposedly fake pieces are a mask and a carved frog, which corresponds to two crafts from Xochilapa, in Guerrero (south), which were awarded for 72 thousand and 48 thousand dollars respectively).
INAH filed a complaint to stop the auction and get the pieces back
Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) indicated on February 3 that it had filed a complaint with the Mexican prosecutor’s office to take legal action against the commercialization of these objects, while simultaneously requesting diplomatic action from the foreign ministry to restore them.
Christie’s, for its part, assured that the objects were “lawfully sold under a transparent public sale procedure and in accordance with the law,” adding that it would “under no circumstances” propose “a work of art” if there were doubts such as until how many are authenticity and provenance “.
When INAH director Diego Prieto denounced the sale, he stated that Mexico’s archaeological assets are “nationally owned, inalienable, inalienable, and unattachable, and therefore beyond any trade act.”
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