Thursday, June 07, 2007

Fort Knox

The controversial Albright-Knox deaccessioning continued today, with some result:

"An important, 2,000-year-old Roman bronze of Artemis, goddess of the hunt, brought $28.6 million this afternoon at Sotheby's in New York, becoming both the most expensive antiquity and piece of sculpture from any period to sell at auction.

...

"Albright-Knox has offered 207 artworks and objects to be sold in a series of auctions at Sotheby's this spring. Today's sale brings the Albright-Knox total to $72.8 million. ...

"The Albright-Knox lots at today's auction, which all sold, tallied $40.6 million, far exceeding their $9.3 million high estimate. ... Dealers said that pristine ownership history made the Albright-Knox works even more desirable, especially at a time when the antiquities field has been mired in legal battles over artworks with murky histories."

Said Tom Freudenheim, who led the unsuccessful campaign to block the sales (see here): "Good for the museum that they are going to end up with a zillion dollars to spend on overpriced art.''

More from the Buffalo News here.