An Imperial Roman marble group of Leda and the Swan was the top lot at Sotheby’s evening sale of antiquities in New York on December 8. Recently discovered in Aske Hall, North Yorkshire the c2nd Century A.D. work had been in the collection of the Marques of Zetland since 1789. It sold for $19,122,500 against an estimate of $2-3 million. The sculpture was sought by four bidders, before eventually selling to an anonymous purchaser bidding on the phone. The competition included an online bidder who participated up to $16.5 million.
Overall the sale brought in $27,588,375, soaring past the top pre-sale estimate of $7.6 million, with 84 per cent of lots sold. A marble head of Zeus Ammon, c120-160 A.D. from the collection of Dodie Rosekrans, the late San Francisco philanthropist made $3,554,500. It was bought by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. An Egyptian Basalt Head of a King, Tuthmosis III, 18th Dynasty, Early Ptolemaic Period, c304-200 B.C. made $602,500.