Barbier-Mueller Collection 37 FIG. 2: Male figure. Olmec, Mexico. 600–500 BC. Green serpentine. H: 10 cm. Musée Barbier-Mueller, inv. 501-4. Photo: Studio Ferrazzini Bouchet. FIG. 3: Amulet in the form of a monkey. Mezcala, Guerrero, Mexico. 300 BC–AD 100. Antigorite. H: 3 cm. Musée Barbier-Mueller, inv. 505-9. Photo: Studio Ferrazzini Bouchet. TRIBAL ART: The collection that is coming up for sale in March is almost a hundred years old. Can you tell us about how it was assembled? Jean Paul Barbier-Mueller: The first acquisitions were made by my father-in-law, Josef Mueller, around 1920, and he obtained them from Joseph Brummer before the latter left Paris and moved to New York. As for myself, I took my first steps in pre-Columbian art between 1953 and 1957 with pieces which, curiously, I bought in the company of my father-in-law. But I didn’t make my first important acquisition until 1976. I was in Los Angeles with my wife when an envelope containing a series of photos of a small Olmec figure offered by a New York dealer arrived at my hotel. I was instantly smitten. I had to have the piece. But even in 1968—180,000 dollars! Of course I didn’t have it. No collector in the world would have had that kind of money in ready cash at the time. Fortunately I was able to come to an agreement with the owner and I returned to Geneva with this major work, which subsequently was featured in the museum’s inaugural exhibition and in the catalog for that event. Later, I bought regularly but at a moderate pace, since, as you know, my areas of predilection are more the traditional arts of Africa and Oceania. At the time, the market was fairly thin. I relied on American and European dealers such as Emile Deletaille, Edward Merrin, and Alfred Stendahl, and I also frequented auction houses. T. A.: Since you just mentioned that your real passions lie more in the areas of African and Oceanic art, what was it about pre-Columbian art that interested you? J. P. B.-M.: It’s all about sculpture. I have always been sensitive to beautiful sculpture. And of course there is the historical dimension that is inherent in pre- Columbian art, an evocation of great civilizations now defunct. At the beginning, for example, I liked Mezcala art from the state of Guerrero very much, but I quickly came to understand the repetitive character of their production. Exceptional artworks are rare in this field, but that didn’t stop me from finding an absolutely astonishing small black serpentine monkey, undoubtedly a good luck amulet, judging from its patina of use. In time, I became interested in objects whose aesthetics did not necessarily correspond with my own
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