Greek, Roman, Egyptian & Other Antiquities

Salisbury Museum is hoping to host a remarkable hoard of Bronze Age jewellery in a new gallery set to open this summer.

An extremely rare 1700-year-old Roman gold coin discovered by a metal detecting enthusiast in South Wiltshire is expected to fetch up to £30,000 at an auction in London.

A UK-based businessman has been arrested on suspicion of looting Egyptian artefacts after he consigned several items into a Christie’s antiquities sale in London.

Standing in the same spot where he had placed the winning £3.25m bid for an Egyptian statue of Isis six months before, London dealer Daniel Katz was again in action at Christie’s South Kensington’s latest antiquities sale.

A private collector has paid a record Aus$495,000 for one of Australia’s first coins, the so-called Holey Dollar.

Egyptian artefacts are one of the bullish sectors in the antiquities market and this has been reflected in sale results on both sides of the Channel last month.

The late November antiquities double bill at Drouot held by Pierre Bergé et Associés kicks off on the 29th with a library of works on Egyptology.

An Egyptian sculpture of Isis became the most expensive lot ever sold at Christie’s South Kensington when it fetched £3.25m at their latest antiquities sale.

An exceptional find – a Roman white marble sarcophagus found in a Dorset garden – turned out to be something more of a rediscovery for Duke’s of Dorchester.

The second most significant gem of its type in the country – a Parthian-Sassanian intaglio (in brown-grey agate) – has been stolen from a house near Evesham.

ROUND UP: The pick of three lots of classic jewellery at Sotheby’s latest antiquities sale in New York from the collection built by Jan Mitchell was this 4th century BC Greek gold wreath of two olive branches bound with shoots of ribbed leaves and berries.

The high point of interest in this spring’s antiquities sales was the Groppi Collection – a single-owner sale at Christie’s South Kensington of ancient Egyptian artefacts.

AXA Art are offering a substantial reward for the safe recovery of two archaeological fragments – a 5th century BC Persian low relief showing the head of a guard and a marble head dating from the Roman Empire – which were stolen from the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts during October 2011.

The much-anticipated 642-lot sale of the Prospero collection of classical Greek coins conducted by A.H. Baldwin & Sons of London (in association with Dmitry Markov of New York and M&M Numismatics Ltd of Washington DC) concluded after eight hours at 03.30 EST on January 5.

AUCTIONEERS Baldwin's have announced the sale of what is being billed as the most important collection of ancient Greek coins to come to auction in nearly a quarter of a century.

Until May this year it was still in the ground in a Cumbrian field. Just five months later it was under the auctioneers’ hammer. Last week this Roman bronze cavalry parade helmet dating from the 1st-2nd century AD, sold for £2m (plus premium) to an anonymous UK private telephone bidder.

A RARE East Anglian Iron Age gold torc dating from c.150-50BC, thought to have been discovered in the Diss area of Norfolk around 1942, sold for £44,000 (plus premium) in Spink's latest sale of coins and medals.

THIS exquisite example of Roman metalwork, a late 1st to mid 3rd century bronze parade helmet with its haunting face mask, represented the find of a lifetime for a Cumbrian metal detectorist when it was unearthed in May of this year.

IT was the talk of the week in the print and broadcast media. The Staffordshire Hoard is being billed as the biggest collection found in England and the most important since the celebrated Sutton Hoo discovery of 1939.

THEY say everyone has a doppelganger. For Elvis Presley it seems his lookalike was an inhabitant of ancient Rome. This Roman marble acroterion – a 13in (33cm) high carved head from a sarcophagus corner dating from the 2nd century AD – does bear a remarkable likeness to the King in his Las Vegas period.