Igal Maoz was born in Israel in 1929. In 1960, he entered the Ecole Superieure Nationale des Beaux Arts in Paris. In the evenings, he studied drawing at the Grand Chaumiere School. Igal received recognition from the most important art critics wherever his works were shown. In 1967, Igal was given a one-man show at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico, which is the highest recognition for an artist in Mexico. While in Mexico, Igal met B. Traven, the enigmatic writer of this century. His most famous work is The Treasure of the Sierra Madre which was made into a movie with Humphrey Bogart. Igal was the only known person who painted a portrait of B. Traven, and it was the only image of Traven ever published in the newspapers.