Guennol Lioness to Fetch Loads of Money!

‘Small is beautiful’, is apt for the 8.2 centimeters (3 1/4 inches) tall statue of a majestic lioness, all set to be auctioned for $18 million, at the Sotheby’s in New York on December 5. Dubbed as the ‘Guennol Lioness’, the 5000 year old statue, has been on display at the Brooklyn museum since 1948, on loan from Alastair Bradley Martin. Presumed to have come from Mesopotamia, presently Iran, the statue is on sale by Martin, grandson of Henry Phipps, a steel magnet.

The smooth ivory-white limestone statue conveys the impression of mammoth power, giving an image of considerable size. Martin and his late wife named their vast collection of sculptures, paintings, Japanese porcelains and home as , a Welsh name for Martin. The collection was exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1969 and the Brooklyn Museum in 2000. Sotheby’s have been proud auctioneers of the impressive sale of antiquities in June, where the roman Bronze statue of Artemis, the goddess of hunt, went for a whopping amount of $28.6 million. Richard Keresey, head of Sotheby’s antiquities department, was anxious about the anticipated auction of the statue, and described the piece as bursting with raw energy and the most famous antiquity they have ever sold. Sotheby’s said the proceeds of the auction are to benefit the charitable trust established by the Martin family.

Via: bornrich