Hamilton Aphrodite, thought lost, resurfaces at Sotheby's London auction

The Hamilton Aphrodite, a Roman marble sculpture from the 1st or 2nd century AD, believed lost for over 70 years, will be auctioned by Sotheby's in London on December 7, 2021, with an estimate of £2-3 million. The 187 cm statue, a variant of the Capitoline Aphrodite type derived from Praxiteles' lost Cnidian Aphrodite, depicts the goddess standing with weight on her left leg, head turned left, and pierced ears for earrings. It is the only intact example of this statue type offered at auction in the last 20 years. The sculpture's provenance traces back to 1775 when it was handled in Rome by neoclassical painter and dealer Gavin Hamilton. In 1776, the Duke of Hamilton purchased it and installed it at Hamilton Palace in Lanarkshire, Scotland, where it remained for 144 years. In 1919, it was sold by Spink and Son to publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst. In 1940, Hungarian-born dealer Joseph Brummer acquired it for $2,000. After Brummer's death in 1947, the statue was sold by his family at Parke-Bernet Galleries in New York in 1949, after which it disappeared until now. The article expresses hope that the next buyer will be a cultural institution, ideally Italian, to display it publicly.