BOULDER, Colo. – World renowned for their carefully curated ancient and cultural art auctions, Bob and Teresa Dodge of Artemis Gallery will host a Wednesday/Thursday May 22-23 sale from their Exceptional Auctions series featuring antiquities, Asian, ethnographic and tribal art. Additionally, the Thursday session boasts an intriguing selection of prehistoric fossils. Each item comes to auction with impeccable provenance and is offered with the gallery’s unconditional guarantee that it is authentic and legal to purchase, own, and if desired, resell. Absentee and Internet live bidding is available through LiveAuctioneers.
Featured selection of fossils on Day 2 includes dinosaur nest with 25 eggs
The two-day event is a virtual timeline of the most significant civilizations of the past 4,000 years. A top lot is the huge Ancient Egyptian bronze bust of Osiris from the Third Intermediate Period, circa 1070-712 BCE. With provenance from Christie’s and a Munich, Germany gallery, it is expected to make $45,000-$60,000.
A superb Ancient Greek (Attic) belly amphora with black-figure painting executed in the manner of the famed Princeton Painter, circa 540-520 BCE, depicts a nude youth on horseback, flanked by two cloaked figures and with a bird flying overhead. Formerly in the private collection of Professor Dr. H.C. Mult Ernst Hern (1928-2006), director of the Basel Museum, its estimate is $50,000-$70,000.
Highlighting the Ancient Roman art section is a spectacular 3rd-4th century CE silver plate with a relief central medallion depicting two Nikes crowning a large eagle with a laurel wreath. The plate was displayed and published in the catalog supporting the exhibition “Dressed to Kill in Love and War: Splendor in the Ancient World” at the Academy Museum in Easton, Maryland. Exquisitely rare and important, it is offered with a $200,000-$300,000 estimate.
To satisfy the ever-growing contingent of ancient glass collectors, Artemis will offer a rainbow selection ranging from Egyptian blue glass dishes and a gorgeous Greek core-formed amphoriskos (vessel for perfumed oil), $8,000-$10,000; to a wonderful array of Roman creations. A highlight of the latter grouping is a petite Roman Imperial Period mosaic bowl of marbled green and blue tones. Examined and authenticated by Dr. Sid Goldstein, a former museum curator and authority on ancient glass who worked for Corning for many years, it is entered with an $8,000-$12,000 estimate.
Wearable ancient jewelry is another category that Artemis Gallery has helped to catapult to prominence. “The high gold content, beautiful gemstones and artistry of many of the pieces we sell cannot be matched in any fine jewelry store. These are remarkable designs, many of them made for aristocrats of the ancient world or, in some cases, created by contemporary artists using ancient materials,” said Teresa Dodge. Examples in the March 22 session include: an exquisite 4th-3rd century BCE Greek twisted gold bracelet with lion’s head finials, $7,000-$10,000; and an important circa-5th-century Greco-Persian gold and carnelian necklace with dozens of dangling carnelian beads, similar to an example at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, $25,000-$35,000.
The auction contains some of the finest Asian art ever offered by Artemis Gallery, such as a larger-than-lifesize circa 200 CE Gandharan schist head of Buddha with features modeled to a very high standard. Estimate $40,000-$60,000. Also from central Asia’s Gandharan Empire, dating to circa 1st-2nd century CE, a 31.25in sculpture of a standing Buddha in a draped robe could reach $20,000-$30,000.
Day two includes many investment-grade Pre-Columbian artworks. Finely carved from basalt, a depiction of Chac Uayab Xoc, the Maya god believed to be both a protector of fish and patron of fishermen, originated in the Yucatan area, circa 600-900 CE. Held in private US collections since 1968, it now comes to auction with a $25,000-$35,000 estimate.
An extraordinary Chavin (northern coastal Peru) carro stone cylindrical vessel made expressly to hold hallucinogenic drugs dates to circa 900-200 BCE. The pale red surface is carved all around, as well as on the base, with relief figures of gods, serpents, jaguars and religious iconography. Central to the artwork is a fantasy figure displaying both human and avian figures. This rare and remarkable piece is estimated at $80,000-$120,000.
Fossils will share the spotlight with tribal art in the May 23 session. A near-complete Psittacosaurus dinosaur skeleton, Asian/Chinese, circa 126 to 101 million years old, is estimated at $15,000-$20,000; and a sensational Theropod dinosaur’s nest containing 25 eggs could reach $40,000-$60,000. The fossil dates to the later Cretaceous Period, 100 to 66 million years ago. “This treasured find, with its distinctive arrangement of eggs laid in pairs, yields important information about the nesting behavior of female dinosaurs,” noted Teresa Dodge, managing director of Artemis Gallery.
The May 22-23 auction starts at 10 a.m. Eastern Time on both days. Artemis Gallery ships worldwide and has its own in-house packing and shipping department to ensure quality control. For additional information about any item in the auction, call Teresa Dodge at 720-890-7700 or email teresa@artemisgallery.com.
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