Ex-Kluge Collection on the market

Antiquities that formed part of the John Kluge collection are not without interest on LM. I see that three ex-Kluge pots are up for auction at Christie's Rockefeller Centre on June 6, 2013:

• lot 546: Attic black-figured column-krater, attributed to the Bucci painter. Surfaced on the Freiburg market, 1988. [Unstated: Becchina Archive.]
• lot 594: Apulian amphora, attributed to the Edinburgh exhibition painter. Surfaced in Royal-Athena Galleries, 1981.
• lot 595: Apulian volute-krater, attributed to the Baltimore painter. Surfaced in Royal-Athena Galleries, 1979.

What are their full collecting histories (prior to their first stated appearances)?

Readers of LM should re-read Lee Rosenbaum's observations about Kluge dating back to 2007. 

A Gnathian Krater from the Swiss Art Market

Among the items presented for auction at Christie's Rockefeller Centre on June 6, 2013 is a Gnathian bell-krater (lot 600). Its collecting history ("provenance" [sic.]) is provided as "Art Market, Switzerland, 1994".

My colleague, Cambridge University researcher Christos Tsirogiannis, has identified the krater in one of the photographic archives seized in Switzerland.

Who is consigning this krater for the auction? Who is the present proprietor?

Can we presume that the staff at Christie's have contacted the Italian authorities as a matter of urgency?

Coins returned to Bulgaria

Source: ICE

ICE has announced the return of 546 ancient coins to Bulgaria ("Federal authorities return ancient coins to Bulgaria", May 21, 2013).

Bulgarian Ambassador Elena Poptodorova was quoted:

It is a special privilege to receive today, on behalf of the Bulgarian people, a part of our rich antique patrimony that was unlawfully taken away from us, ... I would like to thank both the HSI and CBP for their excellent work and high professionalism in retrieving these valuable ancient coins and returning them to where they belong, their homeland Bulgaria.

It appears that the coins were intercepted after a false declaration of origin.

Two Canosan kraters returned to Italy

This time last year I was commenting on identifications made by Cambridge researcher Christos Tsirogiannis. He spotted that a pair of Canosan krater that were due to be auctioned in the June 2012 sale at Christie's Rockefeller Plaza could be identified from the polaroids in the Medici Dossier.

The research did not go unnoticed. The pair of kraters were returned to Italy on 14 September 2012. Investigative journalist Fabio Isman informs us that they are currently in an exhibition of repatriated antiquities at the Museo Nazionale di Castel Sant' Angelo in Rome (20 May -5 November 2013).

Tsirogiannis has written up the work for the next number of the Journal of Art Crime (2013). The detail is telling but readers of LM can wait for the publication.

This return demonstrates that items identified from the Medici Dossier (and this should be extended to the Becchina and Schinoussa archives) are perceived as "toxic". This is not the first time that such a return has been made from this auction house.

Readers of LM will be aware that Tsirogiannis has made a number of identifications in the June 2013 auction (although not all the pieces have been discussed). Two things need to happen. First, senior officers at Christie's need to look closely at what appears to be a flawed due diligence process in their "ancient art" department. Second, somebody should be contacting the Italian authorities as a matter of urgency.

Euboean amphora from the Borowski collection

One of the pieces to note in Christie's forthcoming sale in June is a Euboean black-figured amphora showing a seated woman and a sphinx (lot 540). The amphora first surfaced in an anonymous sale at Sotheby's (London) December 3, 1991, lot 383. It then entered the collection of Dr Elie Borowski and was sold for $10,575 at Christie's (Rockefeller Plaza) on June 12, 2000 (lot 27; "Ancient Greek Vases formerly in the private collection of Dr. Elie Borowski"). It was then sold twice by Royal-Athena Galleries, New York, 2001 (Art of the Ancient World, vol. XII, no. 172) and 2010 (1000 Years of Ancient Greek Vases, no. 31).

Cambridge University researcher Christos Tsirogiannis has spotted the amphora in the Medici Dossier. This suggests that Medici, or one of his agents, consigned the pot to Sotheby's in London. (See other pieces that passed through Sotheby's in London and since returned to Italy.) The amphora seems to have been photographed prior to surface cleaning.

Will one of the staff at Christie's be contacting the Italian authorities to clarify the full collecting history of this piece?

Dr Mona Ackerman and Robin Symes

Detail of Apollo.
Source: the Schinoussa Archive

The Huffington Post has carried a feature on the sale of the art collection formed by Dr Mona Ackerman (Katherine Brooks, "Dr. Mona Ackerman Art Collection: Works By Pablo Picasso, Jean Arp And Egon Schiele Head To Christie's", April 12, 2013). One of the pieces, a marble Apollo, is shown in her apartment. The report quotes Paul Provost, Deputy Chairman of Christie's:

Provost explained that Dr. Ackerman worked closely with Peter Marino, an apartment designer, who helped to arrange the eclectic mix of masterpieces in her expansive New York City apartment. One particularly beautiful display included a figurative marble work by Jean Arp as well as a Roman marble torso of Apollo. Both sculptures were displayed in front of the ample apartment windows overlooking the Metropolitan Museum of Art; a subtle juxtaposition of Ackerman's far-reaching tastes.

"Arp has human forms in many ways, about the same size of this Roman torso from the 1st or 2nd A.D," said Provost. "There is a millenia separating them, yet they are harmonious as two beautiful marbles with tremendous symmetry and balance. A significant amount of thought went into this juxtaposition."

It is perhaps significant that the Apollo seems to be the one that features in the Schinoussa Archive of photographs.

The appearance of such Symes material on the market is clearly seen as problematic by some major auction houses. [See overview.]

What is the full collecting history of the Apollo? Will the Italian authorities be interested in this piece?

I am grateful to Christos Tsirogiannis for making this identification from the Schinoussa Archive.

New York market and recently-surfaced antiquities

Fabio Isman has published an article noting how items identified from the Medici, Becchina and Symes photographic archives are surfacing in the New York Christie's auction this June ("La Grande Razzia è ancora tra noi, e Christie’s lo sa", Arte Magazine, May 2013). He includes a number of photographs from these dossiers, and gives credit to Christos Tsirogiannis for the identifications.

He poses the question, what will Christie's do?

We know what Christie's should do if they are serious about due diligence. A member of their antiquities department should contact the cultural attache at the Italian Embassy.

Is that what will happen?