Silfversparre, Wolmar och Astrid

Gåva.
Ambassadör Gunnar Jarring lät meddela museet att Astrid Silfversparre önskade donera samlingen till museet. Intendent (Amerika) Staffan Brunius for till Viken och inspekterade samlingen. Samlingen befanns vara intressant även om oklarheter vad gäller äkthet förelåg. Samlingen hade varit i Silfversparres ägo en längre tid. Den hade tidigare inspekterats ett antal gånger av professor/f.d. museichef Sigvald Linné (död 1986). SB

This collection consists mainly of Precolumbian objects from Mexico/Mesoamerica, a few may derive from the Andean area. However, the authenticity of the obejcts are not confirmed; some may be quite doubtful, others seemingly genuine (probably then from Guerrero & West Mexico; Central Mexico; Mixteca Puebla- Oaxaca; a few objects in Olmec style). The non-genuine objects are nevertheless of interest since genuine Precolumbian art and related fakes (since at least the second half of the 1800s) are phenomena that involve museums, private collections and the antique market. The former director of Museum of Ethnography-
-archaeologist/ethnographer Sigvald Linné (1899-1986) stressed to SB the importance of this collection which Linné had known since the 1960s. The owner of the collection informed SB that there were objects in the collection that had been purchased in Europe in the 1950s/1960s, others came as gifts from the renowned arts-and-crafts artist Antonio Castillo, Taxco, Mexico, the then son- in-law to the donator. (SB, 2010-02-24).