Greater Nicoya or Atlantic Watershed, period IV circa 1 to 500 AD. Fine hand molded buff clay, deeply burnished oval mask wonderfully detailed in geometric forms. Exaggerated eye to the right eye, while the left is a near blown out circle. Pierced at the top of the skull for suspension. Size 6 1/2" H x 4 1/2" W, museum quality stand included.

ex-collection of Stanley L. Kaufman, a Harvard educated lawyer who specialized in bringing suits on behalf of corporations' disgruntled stockholders, died in 1993 at the age of 81. He was a staff attorney with the Securities and Exchange Commission before World War II, then served in the Army in Europe and rose to captain. In 1946 he became a founding partner in his law firm, Kaufman Malchman, Kaufmann & Kirby, which had branches in NYC and Los Angeles. Stanley and his wife Sigrun Rampoldt were avid collectors of Pre-Columbian art.