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What Was In Gaugins Trash

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by Callen Bair
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Nov 29 2007 12:00am EDT

What Was in Gaugin's Trash?

Celebrity journalists and paparazzi have been known to dig through the trash of A-listers. If there were an art world equivalent, it might be the archaeological dig that mined the well at Paul Gaugin's hut on the Marquesan island of Hiva Oa. The dig happened in 2000, but the findings have only just been published in English in the review Van Gogh Studies, according to the Art Newspaper. Among the detritus excavated:

-A syringe
-Two small containers that may have held morphine (perhaps for the relief of pain caused by syphilis and eczema)
-Four decayed teeth

All of this is now the property of the municipality of Atuona, the village on Hiva Oa where Gaugin lived, which we pray does not attempt to consign them for auction.

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