A blog commenting on various aspects of the private collecting and trade in archaeological artefacts today and their effect on the archaeological record.
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| (Emmanuel Breton/Musée d’art classique de Mougins) |
Mr. Levett became a voracious buyer, assembling one of the world’s largest private collections of ancient arms and armor. Today, his scores of Greek hoplite helmets, Roman greaves and shields, along with Egyptian sarcophagi, Greek statues and ancient glass, are the crown jewels of his Musée d’art classique de Mougins, housed in a series of medieval buildings in the heart of the small village in the hills above Cannes. [...] Certainly the past decade was an opportune time for a shopping spree. The family of Axel Guttmann, a German industrialist, had one of the great collections of ancient weaponry and began selling it off after he died in 2001. “They flooded the market over a short period of time and that crashed prices,” recalled Mr. Levett, who had returned to London in 2003. Once he started buying, he did not stop with artworks. Mr. Levett also acquired Minvera, a magazine dedicated to antiquities. [...] He was also leery of London critics challenging the collection, even though he had been careful about problems of provenance. So far, “No one has come to us on any kind of a claim,” Mr. Levett said. He noted that the Guttman collection had been published earlier without incident and by 2007 when he was buying most heavily, he was aware and mindful of the provenance issues.
2 comments:
For a challenge over a Guttmann piece see here.
one challenge out of a collection of 3000 pieces is not bad is it.the article says levett was "aware of provenance issues by 2007" this didnt stop him buying lot 23 from the bonhams geddes sale in oct 2006 [gnathian volute krater,published sothebys 1985]it went into his museum for a few years but than they somehow come to their senses and it was sold at bonhams oct 2012 lot 85,with a loss of over 10k.at least he is trying to keep his collection clean.i have heard rumours that levett might start dealing in antiquities like the guy that owns the new kalos gallery, going from collector to dealer.i hate the fact that its all £$$$£ with these high end collectors,do they really love their collections for what they are or are their collections some kind of long term investment and nothing else.plugging the investment value of antiquities is something i hear from dealers all the time.it reminds me of bruce mcnall who wrote in his book "fun while it lasted"that nearly all the high end collectors of ancient coins he was buying for,were only interested in the investment opportunities and cared nothing at all for the coins themselves which is sad very sad.when trading up or selling on a piece from my collection,which i dont do very often i nearly always lose money.investment opportunities my a***.
kyri.
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