By Carter B. Horsley
The Spring 2007 Antiquities auction at Sotheby's is low in quantity, reflecting the continuing controversies over the repatriation of some works of art, but high in quality.
The highlight of the auction and the cover illustration of the catalogue is Lot 41, "Artemis and the Stag," a late Hellenistic/early Roman Imperial bronze sculpture group, 1st Century B.C./1st Century A.D. It is 36 1/4 inches high and is one of several works in the auction that comes from the Albright-Knox Gallery of Art in Buffalo.
The catalogue provides the following commentary on this lot which the museum acquired in 1953 from Ugo Jandolo and Piero Tozzi:
"This representation of the goddess Artemis does not conform to any of the known stauary types of the goddess and departs from her usual iconography in several significant ways. she is shown as an adolescent girl rather than as a fully developed young woman; she is catpured in the moment immediately following the shooting of her bow rather than grasping an arrow from her quiver or preparing to shoot...; unlike the Diana of Versailles, for example she does not grab the antlers of her leaping stag but lets it stand peacefully at her side as her attribute and symbolic beast...; her chiton, which normally appears windblown only when the goddess is shown running, billows symmetrically at her sides in a manner highly reminiscent of the Lares, the Roman household gods usually cast as small figurines and kept in domenstic shrines...; and the manner in which her chiton clings to her thighs and lower abdomen more generally alludes of the 'wet drapery' style of late 5th Century B.C. Attic sculpture....All these departures form the norm, whether iconographical borrowings or stylistic quotations, suggest that the present group is a late Hellenistic creation designed for the eclectic and highly refined tase of he Roman art market in the late Republic or early Empire."
The catalogue entry also notes that there is another small example of a stag standing by the side of the goddess in the Paul Getty Museum, and the bronze is an indirect cast assembled from a number of sections.
The lot has an estimate of $5,000,000 to $7,000,000. It sold for $28,600,000 including the buyer's premium as do all results mentioned in this article. The price was the highest ever paid at auction for a sculpture, surpassing the previous record of $27,456,000 for Constantin Brancusi's "Oiseau Dans L'Espace" in May, 2005. It also smashed the previous auction record for a work of antiquity of $11,652,175 for The Jenkins Venus set in June, 2002.
It sold to Giuseppe Eskenazi, a major dealer in Chinese art, who bid on behalf of a private European collector. After the auction, Mr. Eskenazi said that "This is certainly one of the finest, if not the finest, bronze or any sculpture that I have seen in my 50-year career," adding that "On the world scale, it is certainly at the top." "It is the height of bronze casting; it is of the highest quality, and it is exceptionally refined. It is comparable to any other sculpture of this size and quality in any museum or any privae collection anywhere," he said.
Richard Keresey, the head of the department at Sotheby's, said that "Artemis is certainly the greatest work of art that I have ever sold," adding "but she is also much more than that. She is among the most beautiful works of art surviving from antiquity."
The auction was extremely successful with 97.5 percent of the offered lots selling for a total of $47,194,020.
One of the auction's most striking works is Lot 87, an 8-inch-high Canaanite copper figure of a man or god from the Middle Bronze Age, circa early 2nd Millennium B.C. The highly attenuated form has inlaid eyes with recessed pupils and double-pierced ears. The lot has a conservative estimate of $6,000 to $8,000. It sold for $60,000.
Lot 81 is a fine alabaster figure of a worshipper. It is Sumerian, Early Dynastic III, circa 2800-2550 B.C. It is 14 1/4 inches high. It is property of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. It has an modest estimate of $300,000 to $500,000. It sold for $1,720,000.
Lot 74 is a strong Roman Imperial marble relief fragment, circa A.D. 250-270. It is 16 1/4 inches high. The catalogue notes that it is probably from the corner of a monumental lion-hunt sacrophagus. It has a conservative estimate of $12,000 to $18,000. It sold for $66,000.
Lot 62 is an impressive marble figure of a muse, Roman Imperial, circa 2nd Century A.D. It is 31 7/8 inches high. It has an estimate of $150,000 to $250,000. It sold for $168,000.
Lot 43 is a fine marble figure of Apollo, Roman Imperial, circa 1st Century A.D. The 20-inch-high statue was inspired by a Greek sculpture by Praxiteles of the 4th Century B.D. depicting the deity standing with the weight on his left leg and his right hand on his hip and wearing a baldric slung over his shoulder. The lot has a modest estimate of $25,000 to $35,000. It sold for $90,000.
Lot 70 is an imposing funerary portrait marble statue of a poet, Late Republican/Augustan, circa 50 B.C.-A.D. 14. It is 46 inches high. It is property of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo. It has an estimate of $125,000 to $175,000. It sold for $2,056,000.
Lot 77 is a fine Roman Imperial mosaic panel, early 4th Century A.D. It measures 23 1/2 by 23 1/4 inches. It is said to have been found at Ostia, the ancient port city of Rome. It has a conservative estimate of $40,000 to $60,000. It sold for $510,000.
Lot 95 is a fine Sasanian silver-gilt plate, circa 5th Century A.D. It is 7 5/8 inches wide. It is the back cover illustration of the catalogue and has an estimate of $250,000 to $350,000. It sold for $276,000.
The auction has two fine Cycladic Early Bronze Age II works in marble depicting goddesses, Lots 36 and 37. The former is dated circa 2600-2400 B.C., and is 7 1/16 inches high. It has a modest estimate of $30,000 to $50,000. It sold for $84,000. The latter is dated circa 2500-2400 B.C., and is 3 3/4 inches high. It is attributed to the Goulandris Sculptor and has an estimate of $60,000 to $90,000. It sold for $120,000.
Lot 16 is a beautiful red granite Egyptian head of a man from the 30th Dynasty, 380-342 B.C. It is 7 1/2 inches high and is property of the Albert-Knox Gallery of Art in Buffalo. The catalogue notes that Bernard Bothmer mentions three related examples, one in the Louvre, one in the State Museums in Berlin and one in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. The lot has a conservative estimate of $100,000 to $150,000. It sold for $600,000.
Lot 12 is an Egyptian magnesite marble bust of a goddess from the 25th Dynasty, 750-656 B.C. It is 8 1/2 inches high and is property of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo. The work is quite stylized in a rather puffy manner with the wig of the goddess Hathor ended in voluted ends and also falling in a single voluted lock onto the top of the fragmentary back pillar. The lot has an estimate of $40,000 to $60,000. It sold for $360,000.
Lot 11 is a very nice Egyptian limestone figure of a lady, 18th Dynasty, Period of Amenhotep III/Horemhab, 1390-1292 B.C. It is 8 1/4 inches high. She is wearing bracelets and armlets, a diaphanous pleated gown, a broad beaded collar and long full wig bound in a diadem with lotus flower. There are traces of an inscription at the top of the fragmentary back-pillar. The lot has a modest estimate of $60,000 to $80,000. It sold for $360,000.
Lot 80 is an impressive copper figure of a horned hero that is 6 7/8 inches high. The catalogue says it is Elamite, Proto-Literate Period, circa 3000-2800 B.C. It is property of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo. It has a modest estimate of $150,000 to $250,000. It sold for $3,176,000.