Monday 20 May 2013

Additional collecting histories for an Attic krater

It appears that further information can be added to the Athenian black-figured column-krater due to be auctioned at Christie's on June 6, 2013 (lot 546). The catalogue entry tells us:

  • Art Market, Freiburg, 1988. 
  • with Royal-Athena Galleries, New York, 1990 (One Thousand Years of Ancient Greek Vases from Greece, Etruria & Southern Italy, no. 35). 
  • Patricia Kluge, Charlottesville, Virginia. 
  • with Royal-Athena Galleries, New York, 2010 (One Thousand Years of Ancient Greek Vases II, from Greece, Etruria & Southern Italy, featuring the Patricia Kluge Collection, no. 50).

The present proprietor is stated as a Midwest Private Collector.

The Royal Athena Gallery informs us of a parallel collecting history:

  • Ex German collection; Patricia Kluge collection, Charlottesville, Virginia, acquired from Royal-Athena in 1991.

The Beazley Archive (no. 44199) omits the "old German collection" as well as the anonymous Midwestern private collection.

The dealer in Freiburg is perhaps one noted elsewhere on LM but we cannot be sure.

But the main omission is that the krater also seems to appear in the photographic archive of Gianfranco Becchina.

Did Becchina supply material to the Freiburg market? If so, what other material from the Freiburg market can be traced to Becchina?

Kluge is also interesting as a collector.

But is this the only piece in the New York sale that can be identified from the photographic archives?

Can we presume that the head of Christie's antiquities department will be contacting the Italian authorities as soon as possible?

I am grateful to Cambridge researcher Christos Tsirogiannis who made the identification. 

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