Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe FREDERICKSBURG, Texas, June 16 (UPI) -- Pancho Villa's death mask was slated to be among hundreds of items set for auction at the estate of retired artist Charles Trois near Fredericksburg, Texas. The mask, with just black holes where the eyes should be, still evokes a vivid image of the famous figure's face, reports the San Antonio Express-News. Advertisement The Mexican outlaw, a colorful figure in the Mexican Revolution who was scalped after his violent death in 1923, was "hated by thousands and loved by millions" for his Robin Hood ways, says one archive. Trois, who has been collecting since he was a boy, told the newspaper he decided to winnow his holdings to open museums. The two-day auction was scheduled to begin Saturday. The Villa death mask is believed to have been made a day after his death, the newspaper said. Trois, who claims the death mask is the only original, says it was made by a confidant of Villa's and that he has papers to prove its provenance. The items at the auction, which will have no minimum bids or fees, will range from artifacts of the Mexican Revolution to a Ferrari that belonged to Richard Burton to a photo of Lee Harvey Oswald on the autopsy slab. Advertisement
