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The Man Who Invented Aztec Crystal Skulls

The Man Who Invented Aztec Crystal Skulls

Jane MacLaren Walsh | Brett Topping

(2018)

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Abstract

Eugène Boban began life in humble circumstances in Paris, traveled to the California Gold Rush, and later became a recognized authority on pre-Columbian cultures.  He also invented an entire category of archaeological artifact: the Aztec crystal skull. By his own admission, he successfully “palmed off” a number of these crystal skulls on the curators of Europe’s leading museums. How could that happen, and who was this man? Detailed are the travels, self-education, and archaeological explorations of Eugène Boban; this book also explores the circumstances that allowed him to sell fakes to museums that would remain undetected for over a century.


Jane MacLaren Walsh, anthropologist emerita at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History, is an internationally recognized authority on crystal skulls and other fake pre-Columbian antiquities. Her most recent research combines geology and archaeology in a study of the iconic stone faces of Teotihuacan.


Brett Topping has been a professional writer and editor of arts and humanities publications for more than thirty-five years. During her career she was Editor at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, and Director of Publications for the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA).


“An excellent biography of a little-known but important figure in the nineteenth-century history of American archaeology…” • Norman Hammond, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge University


Table of Contents

Section Title Page Action Price
The Man Who Invented Aztec Crystal Skulls iii
Copyright iv
Contents v
Illustrations vii
Acknowledgments xiii
Authors’ Note xvi
Abbreviations xvii
Introduction 1
Chapter 1. Caveat Emptor 11
Chapter 2. Between Old World and New 20
Chapter 3. Mexico 29
Chapter 4. Mexico at Mid-Century 41
Chapter 5. The Emperor’s Antiquarian 59
Chapter 6. Confronting a Different Paris 77
Chapter 7. Marketing a Collection 90
Chapter 8. A Premier Collection 104
Chapter 9. Narratives of Provenance 119
Chapter 10. The Rue du Sommerard Decade 140
Chapter 11. Of Fakes and Fakers 150
Chapter 12. From Student to Teacher, Dealer to Curator 163
Chapter 13. Good Deals and Bad 177
Chapter 14. Back in Business 191
Chapter 15. Fingerprints on Crystal Skulls 204
Chapter 16. Courting the Smithsonian 220
Chapter 17. Of Fakes, Forgers, and Frauds 232
Chapter 18. “El Tocayo’s” Triumph 244
Chapter 19. Later Life 259
Chapter 20. Afterlife 272
Epilogue 280
References 287
Index 299