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LOT 0109
Greek Marble Head of a Youth
6TH-5TH CENTURY B.C.
7 1/8 in. (879 grams total, 18 cm high including stand).
Carved in the round; semi-naturalistic anatomic and facial detailing, hair gathered loosely at the neck and tied with a taenia knotted at the nape of the neck; mounted on a custom-made display base.
ProvenanceEx old European private property, by inheritance to the current owner.
Ex Schuler Auktionen, Zürich, 10 December 2020, lot 1211.
Accompanied by an academic report by Dr Raffaele D’Amato.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.11817-206512.
Cf. Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession no.1992.11.60, for a similar marble head of a Kouros, c.525-475 B.C., in Zimmerman, J.-L., Collection de la Fondation Thétis: Développements de l'Art Grec de la Préhistoire à Rome, Geneva, 1987, p.47, no.88; cf. also a slightly later head with tight, defined curls, likely to have come from a group within a funerary naiskos, no. 1972.118.111 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in Von Bothmer, D. and d'Harnoncourt, R., Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities: An Exhibition from the Collection of Walter Cummings Baker, Esq. no. 59, p. 10, pl. 20, 1950, New York; see also Dörig, J., The Olympia Master and his collaborators, Leiden-New York-Köln-København, 1987.
FootnotesThe small statuette to which the head belonged was probably that of a naked youth, the so-called kouros, typical of archaic Greek sculpture from the 7th century B.C. onwards.
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LOT 0109
Greek Marble Head of a Youth
Estimate £4,000 - 6,000€4,640 - 6,960 (for guidance only)$5,400 - 8,100 (for guidance only)
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Greek High-Glazed Cup with Handles
5th-3rd century B.C.Estimate: £1,500 - 2,000 (‡+bp*)
Opening Bid: £750
The body with an inverted bell shape, foot with channeled sidewall, two loop handles with carinated upper faces; repaired. 96 grams, 12.8 cm wide
Acquired in Europe before 2001. European collection. -
Greek Faience Vessel with Frieze of Hellenistic Busts
Circa 3rd-2nd century B.C.Estimate: £500 - 700 (+bp*)
Opening Bid: £250
A piriform jar with applied decoration presenting a scene with a chariot and a procession of animals, portico above. 1.79 kg, 28.5 cm high
Collected from 1979-1999. From the collection of the late Mr S.M., London, UK. -
Etruscan Bronze Statuette of Herakles
4th-3rd century B.C.Estimate: £30,000 - 40,000 (‡+bp*)
Opening Bid: £11,111
Modelled in the round with a muscular nude body, his club lifted in his right hand behind his head, his hair dressed in rows of tight, close-set curls underneath a Nemean lionskin hood with cloak billowing over his left arm, the paws tied across his chest; mounted on a custom-made display stand. 290 grams total, 14.5 cm high (19.5 cm high including stand)
Fine condition, excellent uniform patina.
with Sotheby's, New York, 21 November 1985, lot 60. Ex private New York collection. Accompanied by an academic report by Dr Raffaele D'Amato. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.11794-206497.
The statuette assumes the position of the 'attacking Hercules', which characterises numerous Etruscan statues of the hero of the classical era, however, with a less aggressive stance. The type was probably an Etruscan creation of the 5th century B.C., based on Greek models, which lasted until the end of the Hellenistic period, when Etruria was by then incorporated into the Roman world. This statuette, despite certain anatomical stylisation and an impersonal characterisation of the face, is the result of a good artistic and technical quality. The comparison of the artwork with the group identified as ‘Trieste’ from Colonna shows that this specimen is more recent and should be dated to the end of the Hellenistic Age. These small statuettes were probably offered ex-voto by the Romano-Etruscan aristocracy of the period.
