LOT 0565

Greek and Roman Bronze Statue Collection

4TH CENTURY B.C.-4TH CENTURY A.D.

2 1/2 - 3 3/4 in. (352 grams total, 63-96 mm).

Comprising: an Etruscan figure of Turms (Greek Hermes), standing and holding a patera in his right hand, original lead mounting beneath; a standing figure of nude Aphrodite, possibly later; a figure of Baubo with her legs bent and right hand touching her genitals; two standing bronze figures holding offerings. [5, No Reserve]

Hermes from the estate of a Swiss gentleman, Ticino, before 1970.
Sardinian figure ex private collection of Prof. Dr Hans (1918-1984) and Dr Ines (1922-2013) Jucker, classical archaeologists, Bern, Switzerland.
with Galerie Rhéa, Zurich, Switzerland.

This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by a search certificate number no.12669-236450.

Cf. similar bronze statuettes of Augur in Torelli, M., Gli Etruschi, Monza, 2000, p.180, Turms, idem, p.372; cf. Rolland, H., Bronzes Antiques de Haute Provence, Paris, 1965, items 27, for the type of Hermes; for Baubo’s statuettes see Nagwa Abdelnaby, A.I., ‘Two unpublished Figurines of Women Purifying themselves in the Greco-Roman Museum of Alexandria’ in Bulletin of the Center Payrological, 38 (1), November 2021, pp.645-664, figs.3, lett. A and D.

Baubo was a minor divinity of Greek mythology, linked to the cult of Demeter and Persephone. The Egyptian Baubo figures are split into two groups. In some of these figurines her right hand is touching her genitalia. All these statuettes were votive offerings to the gods, and many of them were used as amulets.