Roman Mosaic sold

Image from Becchina archive. Source: Christos Tsirogiannis.

A Roman Mosaic with a less than complete collecting history has been sold at Christie's in New York for $545,000, far above the estimate.

It is not clear why Christie's failed to mention that the mosaic had passed through the Ariadne Galleries, or why the leaflet was in the seized Becchina archive.

The new owner of the mosaic may be wise to ask further questions.