Posted on 12/03/2005 4:02:58 AM PST by Republicanprofessor
The Medici Go-Round: Sotheby's & The Signed Euphronios
Proceedings resume December 5 in the trial of the dean of ancient art dealers -- Bob Hecht -- and former Getty museum antiquities curator Marion True. Will Sotheby's be called to answer questions about some of the items listed by Italian prosecutors as looted from Italy -- particularly the Euphronios pieces?
The priceless Euphronios cup -- painted with the image of the fallen Trojan war hero Sarpedon -- is the earliest known work painted by the Athenian master, last seen intact publicly in New York in 1990 on the Sotheby's block as lot #6 selling for $742,000 and going to a "European buyer".
Sotheby's press spokesman Matthew Weigman responded defensively and somewhat sarcastically when I called to inquire if Sotheby's was involved in the Rome trial, saying, "No, are you?"
I considered it a relevant question, since the "European buyer" for the cup last week identified himself to the press in Italy as Giacomo Medici, a man convicted of antiquities smuggling and now appealing a 10-year sentence. Medici was named in Bob Hecht's memoirs seized by police in Paris, as the person who originally supplied the cup to Hecht, meaning it has come full circle and with the loveliest pedigree.
(Excerpt) Read more at scoop.co.nz ...
This vase is in most art history books as an example of red figure Greek vases, 5th century B.C., as being more sophisticated than the earlier black figure vases. I didn't know anything about this scandal until recently.
This is a long article but definitely worth reading, with a chronology of the winner bidder/thief Medici at the end.
Art ping.
Let Sam Cree or me know if you want on or off this list.
Art Appreciation/Education ping.
Again, this is another very educational article, even if it isn't one of my usual "classes."
Let me know if you want on or off this ping list.
The vase belongs in a museum, whether the Met or in Italy, I don't know. But not in the hands of a private owner, because ancient art belongs to the world. That from me, a defender of private property! The Greeks bequeathed us so much, and their art is a part of that heritage and our common civilization.
Looting is another story. If Elgin had left the marbles on the Acropolis, they'd be as smooth as the marbles still there. Pace Graecis.
If it was painted by an "Athenian" painter, maybe it belongs in Greece. It's likely the ancient Romans stole it.
Can you direct me to a treatise or other source describing the law governing ownership of antiquities where it is disputed?
You're my source for authentication of antiquities.
Cloud 8, thanks for answering Buckhead's question about laws. I don't know much about international law at all.
And I do agree with you about the Elgin marbles; Lord Elgin did save them from further destruction.
In case any readers don't know what the Elgin marbles are, they are these wonderful over-life-sized works that were originally on the Parthenon in Athens, Greece, carved about 440 B.C. They were taken by Lord Elgin in the 19th century to England, with the permission of then-ruling Turkey.
The famous Caryatids on the porch of the Erechtheum have been eaten away by the sulphuric-acid charged air and rain of Athens. Look at the single Caryatid that was rescued by Elgin and taken to England:
Every hair, every line of her drapery is perfect. Not so her poor sisters exposed on the Acropolis . . .
Imagine Euphronios' Greece. He worked in the Archaic period when language and art were old fashioned by Periklean standards and only fragments of Archaism survive. His Akropolis had the Erekhtheum with its beautiful Karyaditai, but no Parthenon, and the site hadn't yet been destroyed by the Persians. Democracy was just about to be invented in Athens' redhot intellectual laboratory. And yet here in the late 6th century was this brilliant developer of red figure painting. It is astounding that so many of Euphronios' works survive--12 signed pots I think--surely they had been snapped up at once by wealthy Athenians and kept in the family for centuries. Perhaps the Sarpedon cup was looted by Sulla himself.
I imagine owning a Euphronios was like having a Rembrandt in the house . . .
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