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Rare antiquities show remarkable success at New York sales.
By Souren Melikian
Published: December 12, 2008


The art market is gradually returning to its natural ecology. Far from crushing it, the current recession is ruthlessly paring down the artificial inflation that was recklessly encouraged by auction houses egged on by speculation-oriented consignors. At the same time, spectacular prices can still be achieved when highly important pieces of world museum level turn up.

Take the two sales of "Antiquities" held this week in New York. On Tuesday at Christie's, which probably took too many chances in accepting consignments with ambitious reserves, the going was sticky and 37 percent of the works offered remained unsold. Yet rarities on which no collector wealthy enough to pay the price can gladly pass were fiercely fought over and realized absolutely astounding prices, confirming that the art market stands alone in the overall economy.

There are few major Egyptian sculptures left in the market with a pedigree establishing their presence prior to the 1970 cut-off date defined by the Unesco convention banning the looting of archaeological sites and the export of illicitly excavated objects. A bronze figure of Osiris cast in the early first millennium B.C., which once graced the collection of the Comtesse Martine-Marie-Octavie Pol de Béhague, was one of those. When seen at auction on Sotheby's premises in Monte Carlo in December 1987, it sold for 421,800 francs or $74,500. This week, the bill was a stupendous $902,500.

Later, a Greek bronze of Aphrodite crossing her hands to conceal her nudity caused comparable excitement. Probably cast in the 2nd century B.C., the small piece, 27.9 centimeters, or 11 inches, high, is missing its legs below the knees. But it is of a kind that hardly ever appears in the open market. It shot up to $242,500.

The impact of the rarity factor was perhaps best illustrated by a Roman sculpture of the 2nd century A.D. The statue, which represents Emperor Hadrian (circa 117-138 A.D.), is not in good condition and extensive restoration took place in the 18th century. But that makes it part and parcel of the history of the Neo-Classical craze that then swept across Europe - the piece stood in the Villa Montalto-Negroni-Massimi in Rome when it was acquired in the late 18th century by a young English aristocrat eager to embellish his house, Cobham Hall, in Kent.

The trophy, reportedly bought by a British collector, fetched $902,000, exceeding the high estimate by more than half.

Rare works were disputed at every financial level. An admirable oil lamp of the fifth century B.C. from South Arabia, strongly influenced by the art of Achaemenid Iran, realized $17,500, well above the estimate.

That said, there is a limit to everything. The rarest of all the objects seen on Tuesday was arguably a silver paten decorated in the fourth or fifth century with a Christian scene worked in repoussé. The style points to the Western part of the empire, probably Italy, from which very little early Christian silver survives. Sadly, $600,000 to $800,000 was a pie-in-the-sky estimate for an object that probably cost under $50,000 in 1978 when it entered the "European private collection" cited by Christie's. It went nowhere.

Another work of art of remarkable quality very nearly failed to find a taker. The bronze figure of a hunchback with a pug nose was done around the first century B.C. as a satirical portrait somewhere in the Hellenistic world. It is so far unique of its kind. Unfortunately, the two legs are modern replacements and both arms are missing. In a moment of hubristic optimism, Christie's experts had given the hunchback a $150,000 to $250,000 estimate. The auctioneer wisely let it go at $110,000, bringing the full price with the sale charge to a still impressive $134,500.

In several cases, wild overestimation altogether killed some very fine sculptures. A bronze figure of Hercules cast in the first century A.D. stood no chance of selling between $300,000 to $500,000. It is of superlative quality, but it is only 21.6 centimeters. And the list goes on.

A day later, Sotheby's was luckier. The session, which ended with sales totaling $8.9 million, double the Christie's score, was a remarkable success, leaving only 17 percent of the lots unwanted.

The star lots, more impressive than those seen at Christie's, hit the roof. The Egyptian stone figure of a seated man that may have been carved any time between 600 and 350 B.C. exceeded the upper end of the estimate by half as it went up to $1.65 million. The price for a piece that is 35 centimeters high, the base included, is staggering. Acquired in Egypt by the British consul general, Henry Salt, it was published and illustrated as early as 1836, guaranteeing that no restitution claim will ever be plausibly made.

Minutes earlier another extravagant price was paid for the limestone portrait of a princess of the 18th dynasty believed to be a daughter of the Pharaoh Akhenaten and his spouse Nefertiti. The American-German Egyptologist Bernard von Bothmer photographed the figure in Zurich in 1960, thus documenting its presence outside Egypt a decade before 1970. Badly damaged, missing both arms and part of the legs, its fate prior to the sale seemed far from assured with its $400,000 to $600,000 estimate. The fascination with Akhenaten and even more so Nefertiti did the trick. The carving, 34.3 centimeters high, sold for just over $1 million.

It was not just Egyptian art that had buyers bidding frantically.

One of the finest examples of Cycladic sculpture from the middle of the third millennium B.C. to appear at auction also triggered a bidding war that sent it nearly doubling the high estimate as it went just over the $1 million mark. Whether this was due to the remains of painted detail in the face and the chest that make it a great rarity is anyone's guess. Sotheby's observation that there is "an example" attributed to the same hand and similar in size in the Naxos Archaeological Museum also helped.

The most striking of all the objects in the sale was probably the kneeling figure of a bearded character wearing a diadem on which a bowl with flaring sides is laid.

Cast in copper around 3300-3100 B.C. in a style associated with the period of early Sumerian art referred to as "Uruk IV," the object is 17.2 centimeters high. If the catalogue is accurate, the statue entered a Lebanese collection in 1954. The Metropolitan Museum of Art had it on long-term loan from 1986 until this year. The sculpture has a hypnotic presence like much else in the earliest art of Sumer, that non-Semitic culture of present-day southern Iraq to which the later states of Babylon and Assyria were heavily indebted. Deemed to be worth $300,000 to 500,000 plus the sale charge, the copper figure rose to a breathtaking $782,500.

It was not just pure aesthetics that triggered furious bidding. The most telling price for the light it casts on the future of the market was the phenomenal $932,500 paid for a 13th-century B.C. stone stela recording the restoration of an Assyrian temple. Presented by a sheikh to a German doctor in 1917, the stela is above any suspicion of post-World War II looting. A long cuneiform inscription arranged in two parallel columns on one side and in a third column on the reverse, begins with the protocol of the ruler "Tukulti Ninurta, King of the universe, strong king, king of kings, lord of lords, ruler of rulers, victor of rebels ..." The lettering in sunken relief undoubtedly has an abstract beauty, but the unique historical significance of the stela was the main factor in the making of the price. Nothing of the kind has been seen on the open market in a very long time.

This is not to say that all very fine antiquities continue to climb to astronomical levels. At Christie's a remarkable alabaster head in high relief from the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula that caused no great stir cost its buyer $5,250, and at Sotheby's, two marble Syrian capitals of the fifth or sixth century, one of which is admirable, went for $4,063.

In the market as it now stands, works that require an art lover's eye to be recognized are no longer targeted by speculators. And that, too, is welcome news.

 


Rare antiquities show remarkable success at New York sales


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