Provenance Information

1970s, European private collection; [until 1997, with Phoenix Ancient Art S.A., New York and Geneva, Switzerland]; 1997, purchased by Robert A. and Renee E. Belfer from Phoenix Ancient Art S.A.; 1997-2012, collection of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Belfer, New York; acquired in 2012, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Belfer.

Exhibition Information

Exhibited beginning February 2010 in The Metropolitan Museum of Art Hellenistic Treasury, Gallery 163. Delivered to the Museum for study purposes in 2007.

Publication Information

Lightfoot, Christopher S. 2014. "Recent Acquisitions, A Selection: 2012-2014." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, 72(2): p. 13.

Section of the AAMD Guidelines relied upon for the exception to 1970

Gift or bequest expected or on loan prior to 2008

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

This object has a provenance established to at least 1997 and has been on display at the Metropolitan Museum since 2010. This impressive jug is one of the largest core-formed vessels known and, apart from its size, it is set apart from the other oinochoai by its unusual decorative features – the circular blobs on the shoulder, the festoon pattern of the trails on the body, and the appliqué at the base of the handle.

Provenance Information

Private collection, Europe. Purchased by the Mansour Gallery, London, England, late 1980s. Purchased by Renée E. and Robert A. Belfer from the Mansour Gallery, circa 1990. Given by Renée E. and Robert A. Belfer to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2012.

Exhibition Information

The work has been on loan to, and on display at, The Metropolitan of Art since April 2007.

Publication Information

Lightfoot, Christopher S. 2014. "Recent Acquisitions, A Selection: 2012-2014." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, 72(2): p. 13.

Section of the AAMD Guidelines relied upon for the exception to 1970

Gift or bequest expected or on loan prior to 2008

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

This object has a provenance established to 1990 and has been on loan to, and on display at, The Metropolitan Museum of Art since 2007. This is a rare example of a rectangular, colorless serving dish belonging to a type of cast luxury tableware that remained popular even after the invention of glassblowing. The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Greek and Roman collection does not include a comparable complete dish. It is a remarkable example in terms of its quality and state of preservation.

Provenance Information

by 1992 - 2000 Donna and Earl R. Jacobs, Bloomfield Hills, MI; 2000 - 2007 Estate of Earl R. Jacobs, Bloomfield Hills, MI; 2007 - 2015
Susan Zoma, Bloomfield Hills, MI, inherited from the Estate of Earl R. Jacobs; 2015 Saint Louis Art Museum, given by Susan Zoma

Exhibition Information

None known.

Publication Information

None known.

Section of the AAMD Guidelines relied upon for the exception to 1970

Gift or bequest expected or on loan prior to 2008

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

The bottle does not display any unique features that would attribute it to a specific glass manufactory or region, making it impossible to ascertain its country of origin. The bottle arrived at the Museum on August 26, 2000, as a loan from the descendants of Donna Jacobs. It has been on view at the Museum from 2002-2007 and from 2012 to the present. It can be documented to have been in the collection of Donna Jacobs by 1992. An outside scholar reported that the bottle was in Donna Jacobs collection during the late 1960s.

Provenance Information

This intaglio was first recorded in 1791, and subsequently in the collections of Constantine Alexander Ionides (1833-1900) and his son Alexander Constantine Ionides (1862-1931).

Exhibition Information

Georgia Museum of Art, "Exuberance of Meaning: The Art Patronage of Catherine the Great (1762-1796)." September 21, 2013 - January 5, 2014.

Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens, Washington, DC, "Passion of the Empress: Catherine the Great's Art Patronage." February 15, 2014 - June 8, 2014.

Publication Information

J. Tassie and E. Raspe, A Descriptive Catalogue of a General Collection of Ancient and Modern Engraved Gems, Cameos and Intaglio, Taken from the Most Celebrated Cabinets in Europe; and Cast in Coloured Pastes, White Enamel and Sulphur (London 1791) no. 11976; J. Boardman, Engraved Gems: The Ionides Collection (London, 1968) 99 no. 54; G.M.A. Richter, AJA 73 (1969) 488; M-L. Vollenweider, Art Bulletin 53.2 (1971) 241.

Section of the AAMD Guidelines relied upon for the exception to 1970

Cumulative facts and circumstances

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

While the intaglio pictured has solid provenance, it is only one object from a collection assembled over his lifetime by Michael J. Shubin, a numismatist based in Los Angeles. The collection comprises several hundred small beads, amulets, mineral specimens as well as intaglios and cameos, ranging from cylinder seals of the third millennium BC to neo-classical creations of the second millennium AD, many of which do not have the provenance of the intaglio pictured. The initial gift was accepted under the guidelines of the 2004 AAMD Report on the Acquisition of Archaeological Materials and Ancient Art as an extraordinary teaching resource. The Museum is committed to photographing and cataloguing the collection.

Provenance Information

Joseph and Barbara Goldenberg, by 2010.

Exhibition Information

None known.

Publication Information

None known.

Section of the AAMD Guidelines relied upon for the exception to 1970

Gift or bequest expected or on loan prior to 2008

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

Prior to June 4, 2008, the donor signed a will setting forth her intent to donate the work to the museum. Although gifted to the museum, this work has not been accessioned, pending additional review and research.

Provenance Information

Joseph and Barbara Goldenberg, by 2010.

Exhibition Information

None known.

Publication Information

None known.

Section of the AAMD Guidelines relied upon for the exception to 1970

Gift or bequest expected or on loan prior to 2008

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

Prior to June 4, 2008, the donor signed a will setting forth her intent to donate the work to the museum. Although gifted to the museum, this work has not been accessioned, pending additional review and research.

Provenance Information

Purchased in London in the middle of 1984 from a private collector, now deceased, by Jean-Louis Domercq, Gallerie du Sycomore, Paris. Purchased by Morris Pinto, Paris, in the spring of 1988 from Domercq. Sold at auction by Sotheby’s New York on June 23, 1989, lot 185. Acquired by Mr. Jonathan Kagan, New York, from Michael Ward, New York, in 1995.

Exhibition Information

The work has been on display in The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Roman court since 2007. The work was also exhibited in connection with the Sotheby’s auction in 1989.

Publication Information

The work has been published in Sotheby’s New York Antiquities Auction, 23 June 1989, (New York 1989) lot 185; and in Hugo Meyer, Antinoos. Die archaeologischen Denkmaler unter Einbeziehung des numismatischen und epigraphischen Materials sowie der literarischen Nachrichten. Ein Beitrag zur Kunst- und Kulturgeschichte der hadrianisch-fruhantoninischer Zeit (Munich 1991) no. 72, pp. 93-94 illustrated.

Section of the AAMD Guidelines relied upon for the exception to 1970

Cumulative facts and circumstances

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

This work has provenance established to at least 1984 and has been exhibited publicly since 2007. It is included in the standard catalogue of the known portraits of Antinoos (Meyer 1991). Although fragmentary, its large-scale and high quality make it a desirable portrait of the emperor Hadrian’s handsome young favorite who drowned mysteriously in the Nile in A.D. 130 and became the object of a cult.

Provenance Information

Reported to be the property of Herr A. Weber of Eulenbruch, near Cologne, Germany, from the late 1970’s. Sold by Phoenix Ancient Art, New York, to Mr. and Mrs. Robert Belfer, New York, in 2001. Partial gift of Robert and Renée Belfer to the Museum in 2001, remainder given in 2010.

Exhibition Information

The work has been on display in The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Roman court since 2007.

Publication Information

The work was published in 2007 in C.A. Picón, J.R. Mertens, E.J. Milleker, C.S. Lightfoot, and S. Hemingway, Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, Rome (New Haven 2007), pp. 184-185, 447, no. 212.

Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2012. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 75.

Section of the AAMD Guidelines relied upon for the exception to 1970

Partial interest received prior to 2008

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

The work was accepted as a partial gift in 2001 and has been exhibited publicly since 2007. Such over life-size bronze statues are extremely rare, especially ones of the quality of this piece. It represents a major class of Hellenistic honorific statuary not otherwise represented in the Museum’s collection.