Antiquities and documentation: it will only get more difficult

Antiquities, With a Proven Record, Drive Auction Market

By SOUREN MELIKIAN

Paris — The market for antiquities from the ancient world is undergoing an upheaval that sends some works of art skyrocketing to unimaginable heights while scores of others are effectively becoming unsalable.

Christie’s

‘‘Cupid and Psyche embracing’’ sold for $483,750  at Christie’s New York this month, well above estimates because of its proven history.  

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Drouot

An Egyptian portrait dating from  54  to 68 A.D. sold for 1.46 million euros at an  auction in Paris in  May.

The reason for this discrepancy lies in the Unesco convention adopted in 1970 to safeguard the buried heritage of mankind and shield standing monuments from looting. While many countries, including the United States, did not sign up, the convention is effectively being implemented by international institutions and, increasingly, by prudent collectors and dealers, fearful that the legitimate ownership of their acquisitions may be challenged in the future.

As a result, important works of art that can be proved to have reached the market before 1970 shoot to vertiginous levels, while those that cannot fail to sell with increasing frequency.

The divergent trends reached new extremes at auction in the past two weeks, from New York to Paris.

At Sotheby’s New York on June 5, a sculpture from Egypt recorded in noted private collections a very long time ago surpassed the experts’ most optimistic expectations.

A bronze figure of Somtous-Harpocrates from Hellenized Egypt of the fourth century B.C. sold for two and a half times the high estimate, at $137,000. The impact of Greek influence, which spread in the wake of Alexander’s conquest of Egypt, is noticeable both in the rendition of a male deity as a seated man in the nude and in the expressive face clearly inspired by a man of flesh and blood. The sculpture, owned in the early 20th century by an Egyptian family that took it to northern Europe, is unlikely to be the object of future litigation.

The headless body of a satyr, badly damaged, could have suffered from its poor condition.

Fortunately, it once stood in the residence of the Viennese collector Oskar Bondy. Seized by the Nazis on the eve of World War II and dispatched to the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, it was restituted to Bondy’s widow, Elizabeth, in 1948. The torso more than tripled the high estimate at $329,000.

At a Christie’s New York sale on June 6, early documentation had an even more dramatic impact. “Cupid and Psyche embracing,” carved around the first century in Italy, passed through the hands of Sir William Hamilton in the 18th century before being acquired at his 1801 sale by the Neo-Classical artist Thomas Hope. It was lot 1011 in the 1941 William Randolph Hearst sale. Despite extensive 18th-century restorations to the bodies, the group was estimated to be worth $100,000 to $150,000 plus charges. Instead it went up to $483,750.

There are nuances in the quality of the documentation that establishes the presence of antiquities in the market prior to 1970.

Take the most dazzling Roman period sculpture sold at Christie’s, a life-size marble Venus now missing its head and arms. The masterpiece made $447,750, only slightly more than the high estimate. The catalog indicated that the statue was “with N. Koutoulakis, Paris and Geneva, 1965 or earlier.” (Koutoulakis was a world-renowned dealer in antiquities.) It was exhibited from 2005 until this year at Stanford University, in the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts. That is not nearly as good as an early publication complete with a photograph solidly establishing the presence of the sculpture in the market prior to 1970.

The contrast with the dead silence that greeted scores of bronzes, some very fine, from ancient Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Yemen and other areas was striking. None were documented and the majority remained unwanted at low prices ranging from €1,000 to €5,000 euros. In five to 10 years, these hot potatoes may not even make it to the auction rooms.

Naturally, a total lack of documentation before 1970 proves increasingly damaging, even to rarities. 

Early in the Christie’s auction, a glass beaker described as “early Roman, 4th century” was estimated to be worth $10,000 to $15,000 plus the sale charges. Probably of Celtic make, the vessel is intact, making it doubly rare. But it remained unsold — the lack of documentation would stop most museums from touching it.