Thursday 26 May 2011

Further Apulian pottery formerly in the Geddes Collection

On Tuesday I noted the appearance of an Apulian krater that had formed part of the Geddes collection. The Gnathian krater ("Apulian Monumental Volute Krater") that appears alongside it on the website of the newly formed Mougins Museum of Classical Art had also derived from the same collection. It was sold at Bonham's (London) on 15 October 2008 (lot 23) for £36,000. It, too, had surfaced at Sotheby's (London) in 1985 (9 December, lot 378) and had then be placed on loan to the University of Melbourne, Australia (March 1985 - February 1994).

The observant will wonder if there is some sort of mistake. How could a krater be on loan to the University of Melbourne from March 1985, but be sold in London in December 1985, and then return to Melbourne until 1994? I suspect that there has been some inaccurate recording. Several of the items that were withdrawn from the same Geddes sale were also put on loan to the University of Melbourne.

What was the collecting history of the Gnathian krater prior to its 1985 appearance at Sotheby's?

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