Eugène Boban went to Mexico in 1857, and became fluent in both Spanish and
Nahuatl. He headed an expedition commissioned by
Napoleon III to collect Mexican art and artifacts, later exhibited at the
Trocadéro Museum in connection with the
International Exposition (1867). In 1885 he had published a poster, Cuadro arqueológico y etnográfico de la republica mexicana.[2] In July 1886, he moved his business to New York City. Two sale catalogues of his collection, catalogued by Ed. Frossard, were published in New York in 1887.[3] 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.[4]
Questions of authenticity
A crystal skull originally sold by Boban, now in the British Museum, has been demonstrated to be a modern fake.[5]
Published works
Boban's published works include:
Eugéne Boban Antiquités mexicaines Paris, E. Leroux, 1875
Bibliographie palèoethnologique 1881
Cuadro arqueológico y etnográfico de la republica mexicana Mexico, Imp. de Muriga, 1885
E. Boban Documents pour servir à histoire du Mexique Paris, E. Leroux, 1891
^Préhistorique; ages de la pierre, du bronze, du fer. Catalogue spécial des objets provenant de la collection Eugène Boban et des collections Émile Collin, du Chambon, Gaberel, Landesque, etc. Schleicher frères, Paris 1908 (
Smithsonian Library on-line)
Sax, Margaret; Jane M. Walsh; Ian C. Freestone; Andrew H. Rankin; Nigel D. Meeks (May 2008). "The origin of two purportedly pre-Columbian Mexican crystal skulls". Journal of Archaeological Science. 35 (10): 2751–2760.
Bibcode:
2008JArSc..35.2751S.
doi:
10.1016/j.jas.2008.05.007.
OCLC36982975.
Walsh, Jane MacLaren; Brett Topping (2019). The Man Who Invented Aztec Crystal Skulls: The Adventures of Eugène Boban. New York and Oxford:
Berghahn Books.
ISBN978-1-78920-095-9.