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Charles Vignier (1863–1934)

Charles Vignier (1863–1934)

Charles Vignier, a Swiss-born poet, writer, collector, and dealer of antiquities, was the expert on Asian arts at the Hôtel Drouot, the principal auction house in Paris. He was born in Geneva on May 8, 1863. Vignier was a key figure in introducing early Chinese art and, later, African art to avant-garde collectors in Paris, including Henri Matisse and Roger Fry. With Fry, he published "The New Excavations at Rhages" in the Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 25 (1914): 211–18, which was based on his brother Émile’s excavations in Iran between 1910 and 1914. Vignier died in Paris on February 5, 1934. The Blisses acquired a number of Scythian, Persian, and Islamic antiquities from Vignier.