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 Several of the items that were withdrawn from the same Geddes sale were also put on loan to the University of Melbourne.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?

Apulian pottery formerly in the Geddes Collection

LM has taken an interest in the Geddes collection. I took another look at the Mougins Museum of Classical Art that is opening this month. I have already noted that the museum has being buying from the Royal Athena Galleries and that the curator, Dr Mark Merrony, the editor-in-chief of Minerva, now owned by Christian Levett (Dalya Alberge, "'Compulsive' art collector builds French museum to display ancient treasures", Observer March 27, 2011). I was thus interested to note that one of the three ancient pieces highlighted in the Greek section was an Apulian hydria.

This exquisite red-figure example from south Italy shows a mythological scene featuring Eros, the god of Love and Hermes, the messenger god. Attributed to the Trudo [sic.] Painter.

The hydria, more accurately attributed to the Truro painter, had apparently surfaced at Sotheby's (London) on 9 December 1985 (lot 375). It had then been placed on loan to the University of Melbourne (March 1988 - July 2003) and the Museum of Mediterranean Antiquities, Monash University, Melbourne (November 2005 - April 2008). It was then sold at Bonham's (London) in October 2008, lot 18. (This sale was particularly significant.)

The sale of objects at Sotheby's in 1985 is not without interest.

What is the full collecting history of the Mougins hydria prior to 1985?

TEFAF Maastricht 2011: reflecting on sales

Dr Jerome Eisenberg has been talking about the sale of antiquities at TEFAF Maastricht 2011  ("Big-money still being spent on works of art despite world's traumas", The National March 24, 2011).

At Royal-Athena Galleries, the American antiquities dealer Jerome Eisenberg said business was good. Clients were buying Greek and Etruscan vases from the collection of Patricia Kluge (widow of the movie mogul John Kluge), he noted. "Right now a lot more interest is in the investment benefit because of the phenomenal prices in the auctions last year," he said. He said that new clients included a museum of ancient art in Mougins, France, and a private collector in an undisclosed Gulf state who bought €2.8m worth of vases in January. Interest was also high in Egyptian objects, said Eisenberg, pointing to a relief of Arsinoe II from the Ptolemaic period that he sold the first night of the fair for €52,600.

The Kluge collection was discussed by Fabio Isman in the Italian press earlier this year.

The Mougins Museum of Classical Art will be opening in May 2011. The director is Dr Mark Merrony, the editor-in-chief of Minerva. And as the website of Minerva tells us, "the Mougins Museum of Art [sic.] (MMoCA) is a unique museum from the publisher of Minerva ..." And the most recent number of Minerva has an article on the new museum by Merrony.