A Goddess With a Good Head on Her Shoulders
At a time when the realm of antiquities is in need of some good news… Aphrodite finally regains her head after at least fifty years.
About three months ago, a headless marble figure of Aphrodite was consigned to Sotheby’s Antiquities sale by Mrs. Lawrence Copley Thaw Sr. of New York City. The figure, which is a Roman copy of a Greek bronze original, dates to about late First Century/early Second Century A.D. Thanks to extensive research – and the impressive long-term memory of antiquities expert Florent Heintz – Sotheby’s was able to reunite the goddess with her long-lost cranium. A private collector from Houston, who had purchased the head in 2002, agreed to privately sell it to whomever obtained the body at auction.
On June 6, 2006, the figure was bought by the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University for $968,000. Immediately following this purchase, the museum privately bought the figure’s missing head for about $50,000. Amid the scandal surrounding the illegal acquisition and sale of antiquities that have wound up in institutions such as the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, both Sotheby’s and art historians alike are very proud of this achievement. However, it seems safe to say that no one is as thrilled by this reunion as Aphrodite herself. —D.L.
