Antiquities and Ancient Art

How Does the Weak Dollar Impact Antiquities Collectors?

If you haven't been paying much attention to the weakness in the US dollar and you collect antiquities, you may be in for a case of sticker shock as the dollar's impact begins to be reflected back into the art market.

On Friday, September 21, it took more than two US dollars to purchase one British pound. That's a 40% increase in the strength of the Pound since January 2002.  Worse still, the Euro outperformed the Pound, requiring $1.40 to buy just one Euro, compared to the $.80 required just a few short years ago.

The net effect is that it is bargain day for European shoppers and they are sweeping through the US antiquities market snapping up quality antiquities at bargain prices. Every antiquities dealer I have spoken with recently has seen a dramatic increase in European purchasers. European dealers who typically spend most of their time buying and selling in Europe are booking tickets to the US to stock up.

Consider this: an American dealer buys a Greek vase two years ago and offers it for $10,000.  Today, to a European collector or dealer, that same appears on sale for a mere $6,000!  To the American buyer it is still $10,000!

American dealers typically buy heavily in Europe, but the exchange rates are forcing dealers to be more selective. The result is a shrinking supply of exciting material in the US, and higher demand. Some dealers are expecting a surge in prices as the impact of this trend winds through the antiquities market. To compound the problem, auction houses have recently raised premiums -- the amount a purchaser pays on top of the hammer price -- by 25% as of September 1. And last, but not least, shipping costs have risen across the board in the wake of $80/barrel oil. While US residential mail increased just 2-cents for a first class letter recently, shipping of packages increased dramatically.

The best strategy for US collectors is to give a second look at US dealers' inventory. Objects in inventory bought two or three years ago were purchased with a stronger dollar and it is unlikely the dealer will be able to replace the object at the same price paid in 2002 or 2003.  Buying objects now is a hedge of sorts against the inevitable increase as dealers adjust to increased costs.  If you do not take advantage of the current window of opportunity, the dealer's inventory will be replenished with a new selection of objects that share one thing in common: the weaker purchasing power of the US dollar. Prices of antiquities five years down the road may make today's prices look like the 'good ole days!"  Don't let them pass you by.

Ancient Roman Ruins in Scotland Earlier than Previously Thought

Interesting news reaches us from Scotland where the long-term "Roman Gask Project" is significantly changing current theories about dating of some Roman frontier expansion.  The Project has been examining the Roman on and around the Gask Ridge in Perthshire, Scotland. The Gask Ridge frontier system is the earliest Roman land frontier in Britain, built in the 70s AD -- 50 years before Hadrian's Wall and 70 years before the Antonine Wall.

Archaeologists working on Scotland’s Gask Ridge Frontier have discovered evidence that part of the visible monument is in fact 70 years younger than previously believed and dates from the Antonine period. The Gask frontier is the oldest Roman frontier anywhere in the Empire and predates Hadrian’s Wall by 50 years

The Gask Ridge Frontier is a combination of forts, watch towers and  a road. It stretches from around Dunblane in Perthshire to north of  Perth itself, mainly running on the low Gask Ridge.  Work this summer, by the Roman Gask Project, University of Liverpool,  indicates that the visible Roman road is younger than the watch  towers that are arranged along it. The towers date from around 70 AD and would have been linked by a road or track, however the  visble road is Antonine in date (around 140 AD).

During the Antonine period Hadrian’s Wall was abandoned and a new  frontier of wood and turf – the Antonine Wall – was built between the Clyde and Forth. At the same time some of the forts that made up the Gask system were rebuilt as outposts of the Antonine Wall.

“The archaeology of the Gask is becoming more complex than originally believed and shows that it played an active part in the military history of Roman Scotland for a considerable time,” said Dr David Woolliscroft co–Director of the project.

“The watch towers must have been linked by a road or track, to allow the tower teams to reach their posts from the nearby forts, but that road remains to be found. The wonderfully engineered road we see today was built later when the forts came back into use in the mid 2nd century.”

The combination of road and watch towers that was first created in Scotland was used as a model by the Roman army in Germany 20 years later when they built their frontier from the Rhine to the Danube.

“Gods in Color: Painted Sculpture of Classical Antiquity” makes its premiere in the United States at Harvard

The Harvard University Art Museums present Gods in Color: Painted Sculpture of Classical Antiquity at the Arthur M. Sackler Museum from September 22, 2007 through January 20, 2008. This traveling exhibition of over 20 full-size color reconstructions of important Greek and Roman works challenges the popular notion of classical white marble sculpture, illustrating that ancient sculpture was far more colorful, complex, and exuberant than is often thought. The reconstructions will be displayed in the Sackler’s galleries of ancient art alongside some 35 original statues and reliefs—primarily from the Art Museums’ own collections of Greek, Roman, Near Eastern, and Egyptian art. Gods in Color breaks new ground as it constitutes the first large-scale effort to recreate the original appearance of ancient sculpture. The exhibition at the Sackler Museum is the first

U.S. venue of the traveling exhibition, which was previously shown in Amsterdam, Athens, Basel, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Istanbul, Munich, and Rome.

A closer look at the surfaces of many ancient statues and reliefs reveals traces of their painted decoration, suggesting that plain white marble sculpture was not so much an ancient reality as an invention of the Renaissance and neoclassical periods. Evidence of painted and gilt stone sculpture, of colorful bronze statuary, and of statues of gold and ivory puts Greek and Roman art in harmony with artistic practices in Egypt and the Near East, and with those of the subsequent medieval period. The color reconstructions presented in Gods in Color are based on extensive visual and scientific analysis of original sculptures. Two short films that document the process of their creation and a display of pigments used in antiquity—as well as for the modern reconstructions—will also be shown in the galleries.   More information.

Israeli High Court Petitioned to Halt Temple Mount Digging

Members of the Committee to Prevent the Destruction of Temple Mount Antiquities petitioned the High Court of Justice yesterday to stop an excavation by the Waqf, or Muslim religious trust, on the Temple Mount, according to the Tel Aviv newspaper Ha'aretz.

Waqf officials say the digging of the trench, 500 meters long and 1.5 meters deep, is necessary to replace 40-year-old electric cables. But the petitioners say the work "is causing irreversible damage to antiquities and archaeological artifacts of the greatest importance, and is being carried out illegally, without the requisite authorizations."

More...

New Color Catalog Features Antiquities from Ancient Greece, Rome, Egypt and More

Fragments of Time, Inc., a leading international dealer of antiquities, announces the release of it Catalog XLII.  A complimentary copy is available on the company's recently website.

The catalog features nearly 70 museum-quality objects spanning more than 4,500 years of history -- from the early dynastic period of Egypt to the Islamic Period of the Dark Ages.

The catalog features several breath-taking objects of exceptional rarity including:

• Roman bronze plaque (cover) depicting Victoria inscribing SPQR on a military trophy of arms with a mourning captive (possibly Judea?) at her feet.
• Spectacular East Greek Marbled-ware Lydion painted in yellow and red to simulate the look of freshly hammered gold or bronze.
• Attic Greek vase modeled int he form of a female head with superb, original details
• Laconian (Spartan) drinking cup with the interior  decorated with four swimming dolphins
• Fine Egyptian turquoise faience openwork bracelet
• Etruscan terracotta lid depicting a reclining figure holding a ribbon
• Roman portable marble altar inscribed to Jupiter and dating to the 2nd-3rd century AD

Still, you need not be a museum to purchase. There are many objects under $500, including a superb collection of Roman pottery.  Prices are listed for each object, along with complete descriptions, condition reports, provenance and scholarly references. Every object is backed by the company's lifetime guarantee of authenticity.

Test your eye: Ancient Sumerian Masterpieces or Really Bad Fakes?

A friend just sent me an unsolicited email he received from a Serbian gentleman offering this pair of Sumerian terracotta statuettes allegedly excavated from "Babilon." 

In art, fakes are meant to intentionally deceive. But what this little pair lacks in resemblance to anything ancient, is made up for in the humor they invoke.  As if the combination of bountiful breasts, bizarre faces, garish hairstyles, stumpy proportions and nonsense inscriptions wasn't enough, the maker chose to embed a few rhinestones around the faces to give it that extra special bejeweled look. My American friends can relate to this analogy -- these figures are closer to the Brady Bunch Hawaiian idol than anything you'll find at the Metropolitan Museum.   

Fakes, of course, are serious business. In my opinion, good forgers make bad mistakes, but bad forgers make really bad forgeries. Perhaps this helps make the case.

If you wish to compare a truly ancient example, see this Sumerian worshiper in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum, NY.

The Louvre Lends Largest-Ever Roman Antiquities Group to Indianapolis Museum

The Indianapolis Museum of Art will be the first U.S. venue for Roman Art from the Louvre, an exhibition of original works from the Musée de Louvre in Paris, France, opening Sept. 23, 2007.  Organized by the American Federation of Arts and the Musée du Louvre, the traveling exhibition represents the largest number of loaned pieces from the Louvre for any single show.

“This is the first exhibition in the IMA’s 123-year history to feature the fabled art of ancient Rome from the most renowned art museum in the world,” said Martin Krause, curator at the IMA.  “From monumental sculptures to precious objects, the works will be strikingly familiar, as the legacy of ancient Rome remains deeply embedded in our art, architecture, culture and society even after 2,000 years.”

Supported locally by a $1.5 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc., Roman Art from the Louvre features approximately 180 prime examples of Roman art drawn from the Louvre’s unsurpassed collection.  The exhibition examines aspects of Roman art—works made between the first century BC and the early fourth century AD—in artistic, historical and socio-cultural contexts.  The objects, which have never before been shown in any exhibition in the United States, include mosaics, frescoes, terracotta statuettes, monumental sculptures, marble reliefs and glass and metal vessels.

Arranged by theme, the exhibition will both highlight contrasts and underscore continuities that characterize these artistic manifestations of Roman public and private life.  The exhibition will explore religion, urbanism, war, imperial expansion, funerary practices, intellectual life and family.  The exhibition will close with ancient statues that have been repeatedly repaired and altered since the Renaissance, reflecting both the importance of Roman art and the way in which it has been collected, interpreted and restored over the centuries.

Roman Art from the Louvre is organized by the American Federation of Arts and co-curated by Daniel Roger and Cécile Giroire, curators in the Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities Department at the Musée du Louvre. The exhibition runs through January 6, 2008.