Replica of Olmec head is permanently displayed in Vietnam

A reproduction of one of the enormous Olmec heads will be completely displayed at the Museum of Fine Arts in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, starting September 15. It is a replica of the sculpture known as The king, for its majestic appearance. How he got to Vietnam is unknown; However, it's miles estimated that it can have been among 1975, the 12 months wherein Mexico and the Asian us of a installed diplomatic family members, and 1980. The Mexican embassy in Hanoi closed in 1980 and reopened in 2000.

Alejandro Negrín, Mexican ambassador to Vietnam, upon assuming his function in January 2022, learned of the life of “a huge reproduction – more than  meters excessive – of a bit, reputedly Mexican, stored within the Museum of Fine Arts Arts”. Afterwards, the diplomat visited the website in which he noticed the copy, whose authentic was observed in 1946, dates returned greater than three,000 years and is exhibited inside the Museum of Anthropology in Xalapa.

With the collaboration of the Vietnamese and Mexican authorities, a venture changed into initiated to the dignification of the reproduction of the Olmec head positioned in Vietnam. The first undertaking became to determine its beginning and cost. At the request of the embassy, ​​the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) made a technical opinion based totally on motion pictures, images and outlines provided by the diplomatic illustration.

On July 1, 2022, it was ruled: “The duplicate (placed in the Museum of Fine Arts in Ho Chi Minh City) turned into made with the aid of specialists… who completed a cautious observe of the shape and finishes of the authentic Olmec head. . It may be taken into consideration a excellent job, so much in order that, regardless of having been outdoors for so many years, it retains its splendor and bodily resistance.”

Determining the origin and the way the piece arrived in Vietnam has verified more complicated. According to Negrín, because of its traits it's far viable that it arrived between 1975 and 1980. As a end result of a seek and requests for data to the INAH, distinctive government businesses and the Museum of Fine Arts of Ho Chi Minh City, the existence became recognised. Of at the least  generations of replicas of Olmec heads made in Mexico that have been donated to specific countries.

A first generation become apparently manufactured between 1970-1976. They are heads product of fiberglass, with finishes of acrylic resins, earths and pigments. Due to its characteristics, the replica found in Vietnam could seem to belong to this generation. A 2nd technology of Olmec heads, made of stone, seemingly between 2003 and 2004, changed into made by way of Veracruz native Ignacio Pérez Solano, commissioned by means of the government of Veracruz and the Miguel Alemán Foundation.

Despite the embassy’s investigations, the starting place of the piece and how it arrived in Vietnam remains a thriller. Negrín collected records to the effect that A few decades in the past, the head could had been positioned on a famous road in Ho Chi Minh, before being inside the museum. Another Mexican diplomat, who was assigned to Vietnam, “informed me that he saw the head displayed in the museum’s outdoor patio in 2013 – pics exist. At some later, undetermined time, the pinnacle turned into relocated outside at the roof of the museum.”

At the request of the Mexican embassy to dignify the head, both the government of Vietnam and the museum chose a brand new blanketed area inside the premises to display it. A unique museography became designed. The new space will function photographic photographs of the rainforest of the place in which the piece, additionally referred to as Olmec monumental head primary.

To the query of The Day, Negrín considered that The discovery and upcoming inauguration of this duplicate of the Olmec head are of extraordinary importance for the relationship between Mexico and Vietnam, in financial and educational terms. This replica will become a powerful symbol of a new generation in family members between both nations.

In Vietnam, he pointed out, there are simplest two Mexican works: sculpture Totem City Stories, of Paloma Torres, donated to the metropolis of Da Nang in 2017, and the reproduction The king.