Auction introduction: Exactly sixty years after Victor Brauner’s passing on 12 March 1966, no fewer than eleven major works by one of the most influential Surrealists will come to market from the Fred Feinsilber collection. Fred Feinsilber belongs to a generation shaped by exile and history. Born in 1940 in Romania to a Jewish family of Bessarabic origin, he fled communism, passed through Israel and grew up in France. He never saw himself as uprooted and readily described himself as "from everywhere". A scientist turned industrialist, he founded a chemical company along with his wife, which he sold in the early 1990s. This turning point marked the beginning of a new life devoted to his collection, which reflected his three main passions: books (Sotheby's sold his library in 2006), primitive art and 20th-century art. His most intimate connection remained the one he had with Victor Brauner. The eleven works he treasured constitute the heart and most crucial part of his collection - reflecting a deep affinity between two sensibilities born on the same Romanian soil. Two major works by Brauner lead the collection: one of his famous wax paintings, a 1946 self-portrait showing him in profile as a boxer, Coupe des Cent-Vingt dispositions érotomagiques, purchased at Sotheby's 30 years ago; and Victor Victorios écrasant les envoûteurs, painted by the artist just after his expulsion from the Surrealist group by Breton and never before offered at auction. Works by Picasso, Kandinsky, Dubuffet, Chaissac, Music and others complement the collection, alongside works by Alberto and Diego Giacometti. The collection brings together more than 300 works, faithfully reflecting the eye and mind of Fred Feinsilber.