English version Version française Deutsche Fassung The Marquesan’s Gauguin Restitution of Gauguin’s skull Gauguin official painter of France Gauguin the last warrior Gauguin celebrity Gauguin Jackpot The grave of Gauguin Traditional marquesan skull Paul Gauguin was buried on May 9, 1903 on Hiva Oa, one of the Marquesas islands located at 900 miles northeast of Tahiti. He lived the last two years of his life in the village of Atuona. Apart from Robert Louis Stevenson and James Cook, he is the only major personality of the Western world buried in the Pacific. His paintings and especially his books (Noa Noa, 1891, Avant et Après, 1903) show Tahitians and Marquesans as he saw them. But how did the Marquesans see him ? How would they erect his portrait with the means and within the traditions that were their own ?