Vintage Metepec Dia de los Muertos Altar 80" tall

Peso Priced Item. Vintage Metepec Dia de los Muertos Altar 80" tall (204cm), 52" wide The plaque over her head states: "Me Muero de la Risa" (I am dying of laughter") and approx. 11" (28cm) thick. This is gigantic!I purchased this from Maurice Yáñez in 2000. He was a retired Los Angeles commercial artist, an artist in his own right and an important collector of Mexican Folk Art & Artesanias. His commercial art was exhibited in MOMA in 1968. He used to travel rural Mexico in all the major folk art towns and villages, asking if anyone had works by their ancestors.. Although a decendant of an important Southern California hispanic family, Maurice did not speak Spanish so he had a driver and translator who helped the digging for him.. His important collection was sold to a Guadalajara dealer in in 2000 and sent off to the US to be broken up and sold individually. I was lucky that this was too large for shipping north and is stayed in Mexico. He was responsible for uncovering some incredible folk art pieces. He found a large part of this in a bodega in Metepec in the 90's. Once he discovered the boxes and boxes of parts, he encouraged the grandchildren of the artist to complete it for him.Later he brought the components to his Chapala home and it was finally constructed to it's present day form. There are a couple of cracks, the result of moving to my home in the year 2000. Over the quarter century it was on my patio some little parts have fallen off, broken and for some reason people have stolen little parts!I have moved and decided it is time to share this treasure with another collector who might have the space rather than move it to our new home. We will work with the buyer for a careful move...and do some minor repairs. There are local restorers who can assist. Considering it's age (probably 75 years old now) and size it is a miracle that it is in as good a condition it is!