Londra, 25 ottobre 2012
Nuovo record mondiale per una scultura dell’antico Egitto. Raffigura la dea Iside e risale al 664-525 a. C. Era offerta a una stima di 400/600,000 sterline ma è stata aggiudicata a £3,681,250 ($5,930,494/€4,553,706) al gallerista Daniel Katz, esperto di scultura e con base a Londra, per la sua collezione privata. Il risultato ha più che raddoppiato il precedente record per un’opera d’arte dell’antico Egitto stabilito nel 2005 quando il Kimbell Art Museum di Fort Worth, in Texas, ha acquistato una scultura di Ka-Nefer e la sua famiglia per $2,816,000.
LATE PERIOD, DYNASTY XXVI, CIRCA 664-525 B.C.
Depicted seated on a throne with legs together, her hands resting on her lap, an ankh-cross in her right hand, wearing a tripartite wig, overlaid by a vulture headdress holding shen-signs in each of its talons, and a frontal uraeus, the details finely incised, surmounted by a modius of uraei and a sun-disc between cow’s horns, a broad collar with a row of pendant beads between the lappets of the wig, wearing a tightly fitted ankle-length halter-neck dress, her face with almond-shaped eyes, the rims raised and with extended cosmetic lines, the eyebrows in raised relief arching above, with a delicate straight nose and full lips pulled into a slight smile, the filtrum defined, with small rounded chin and large well-modeled ears, inscribed on four sides of the throne with a magical incantation for the Royal Acquaintance, Ptahirdis, True of voice, son of Wepwawetemsaf, begotten of Merptahites
28¾ in. (73 cm.) high
La vendita ha totalizzato £8,080,563 ($13,017,786/€9,995,656) con 228 lotti venduti su 288 offerti.
Laetitia Delaloye, Specialist and Head of Saleha commentato: “We are delighted with the Autumn Antiquities sale which totaled over £8 million, concluding a record-breaking year for the London department. Annual sales exceeded £13.8 million in 2012, confirming Christie’s leadership in the field. The Egyptian section witnessed particularly strong prices, led by the record-breaking result achieved for the Egyptian greywacke Isis dating from circa 664-525 B.C. which realised a staggering £3,681,250 / $5,930,494 / €4,553,706. This is the highest price ever paid for a work of art at Christie’s South Kensington. The private collections of the Thetis Foundation and the Jürgen Abeler Collection of rings performed extremely well and the strength of the market is evident by the variety of areas represented in the top lots – Egyptian, Greek and Roman. Interestingly, over a quarter of the sale was sold or directly underbid online. We look forward to Christie’s final Antiquities auction of the year in New York on 5 December.”
