2,000-Year-Old Roman Emperor Torso to Hit Sotheby's Block with $12M Estimate

Key facts

• A 2,000-year-old Roman emperor torso from the Julio-Claudian period will be auctioned at Sotheby's in New York on October 21, 2026.
• The marble sculpture carries an estimate of $8 million to $12 million and is Lot 8 in the Magnum Opus Evening Auction.
• The torso dates to the first half of the first century A.D. and is associated with ancient Salona in Dalmatia, present-day Croatia.
• It was previously sold by Sotheby's in New York in 2010 for $7,362,500, including buyer's premium, against an estimate of $800,000 to $1.2 million.
• The sculpture was carved from Parian marble and depicts a standing male figure in a military cuirass with decorations including Sol, winged Victories, and a trophy of captured arms.
• The identity of the emperor remains uncertain; earlier Sotheby's research proposed Augustus, Tiberius, or Claudius.
• The work was originally displayed in one of the Twin Temples at the Roman forum of Salona and later entered the collection of Austrian collector Aloys Maximilian Neumann in the 19th century.
• The Magnum Opus evening sale contains 64 lots, with a New York exhibition from October 17 through October 22 at 945 Madison Avenue, and additional sales on October 22 and 23.