A Few Pieces From My Collection Of Ancient Artifacts

A few years ago I was gifted a piece of Indus Valley pottery by a friend who noticed the collection of history books in my reading nook. It sparked an interest in collecting these remarkable pieces of history.

After a lot of learnings and carefully navigating the constant flow of fakes in the market I have curated an impressive collection of ancient artworks and artifacts. This hobby has been quite an adventure... purchasing pieces from well known auction houses, then accidentally buying a few items that originally came from a known art smuggler, finding myself across the table from U.S. Homeland Security agents. In an odd twist, I now provide occasional guidance to them and identify unusual cultural objects when they're presented with something they don't recognize.

Here are a few of my favorite pieces from my collection of a few hundred pieces at present. Most of these photos are from the auction house because I'm honestly too busy to take such detailed photos myself. lol


Greek Red-figure Lekythos c. 480-460BC. Currently working with a museum curator to attribute this piece to one of the handful of known artists. It's my favorite Greek piece and has a fascinating history. Reassembled from sherds after being broken and damaged by a fire at some point in antiquity. Fire caused discoloration on several sherds which gives it a unique mosaic appearance. It has a storied provenance, originally collected by a French nobleman almost 250 years ago. Imagery on this piece suggests it was likely placed in the tomb of someone very wealthy and important in Athenian society. Multiple thermoluminescence tests with samples taken from several spots conducted by QED Labs in France confirms its authenticity.





Greek Red-figure Pelike c. 400BC. A unique and interesting piece depicting a hermaphrodite on one side (identified by a distinctly female hairstyle with male genitalia), and a Lady of Fashion on the other. It certainly isn't the prettiest piece, but art depicting hermaphrodites (a child of Hermes and Aphrodite) is extremely rare. Quite a few statuary pieces exist, while literally only a few pottery examples exist, of which this is one. An odd sort of thing to collect perhaps, but a real conversation piece.




Shabti for a member of the royal court of Ramses II, the longest reigning pharaoh of Egypt. This piece has a truly amazing story. Originally from the tomb complex of Ramses II where it was placed along-side one of his royal advisors. It was later moved, along with every sarcophagus and funerary object from his tomb and those of his family and royal court. Lost for more than 3000 years, no one knew what became of the pharaoh or the treasures from his tomb. They had been moved to a secret location not long after his death. More recently (last century) it was found by a goat farmer and his brother in cave in the side of a hill when trying to locate a stray goat from their herd. There is now a documentary about this incredible find on Netflix. This piece was among the hoard found in the cave. Many of the smaller items were sold by the Egyptian Ministry of Culture to a British collector shortly after. A wealthy Spanish collector, Dr. L. Benguerel Godó purchased a massive collection containing this and many of the Shabtis at a London estate auction the 1960s. They were then sold in 2010 by his grandchildren to a very prominent art dealer in Barcelona who kept almost all of them in his private collection until 2021, when I purchased this one from him.




Islamic/Persian bronze oil lamps, c. 1100-1200CE. I call these my genie lamps. Purchased all 3 from the descendent of a collector in Italy. She actually got in quite a bit of trouble for selling these to me and they were very nearly seized by the U.S. government at the request of the Italian Ministry of Culture due to some confusion over the export paperwork. Fortunately I had already requested every shred of documentation from her and won the battle in a legal challenge. It took months to get these and I learned a great deal about cultural patrimony laws in the process.




I'll post more later in an update to this thread, it took me ages to compile this post so I need a little break for now.