Roman, Greek, Egyptian, and Ancient Near Eastern artifacts held for sale by Phoenix Ancient Art in Geneva, Switzerland

Roman, Greek, Egyptian, and Ancient Near Eastern artifacts held for sale by Phoenix Ancient Art in Geneva, Switzerland.
Have you seen an amazing ancient artifact in a museum and wondered how much a museum paid for it? Well, for some items, you can find out by browsing the online inventory of Phoenix Ancient Art. I saw a fulcrum from a Roman couch shaped like a mule, quite similar to one at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, offered for $38,000. Would you like to purchase the Palmyran funerary relief of the Mother and Daughter featured in today's Classic Moments Daily post? Just a mere $90,000 and it can be yours! How about a 3rd-2nd millennium Bactrian Seated Female Figurine very much like one at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art? Well, its price is available on request.
As I browsed the art dealer's inventory I found each piece to be truly exceptional even considering the thousands of pieces I have viewed in museums around the world. Sigh...it saddens me, though, to think they will be purchased and displayed in someone's home where the rest of us will probably never see them again. I was gratified to read that this dealer prides itself on its vigorous and stringent procedures of due diligence for establishing the provenance and ownership history of its objects and scholarly historical and stylistic analysis including thermo-luminescence, “Carbon 14”, metallurgic, and other such testing to establish an object's authenticity. I only hope someday these objects will eventually be donated to a public institution so they can be appreciated by us all.


Image: Roman Bronze Fulcrum in the shape of a mule 1st century CE bronze with silver inlays courtesy of Phoenix Ancient Art.

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