Born into a family of the Austrian nobility, Juva completes his humanities studies at the University of Vienna in 1910. Refusing to live under Hitler’s regime, in 1938 he takes refuge in France with his wife. Passionate about art from childhood, Juva collects bizarre objects. In the late 1940s, his attention is drawn by the many flints he unearths in the Paris region whose shapes remind him of animals or figures. Carving and adding touches of paint to them, he signs all these creations with his pseudonym.