Antiquities Prices Set World Records

Antiquities prices continued to turn in awesome results as new world records were set this week in New York.

Christies New York topped $14.9 million in total sales, which included the sale of a superb collection of vases formerly owned by one-time Canadian museum curator Elie Borowski.

An Attic red-figured kylix attributed to Douris as painter and Python as potter (circa 480 BC), brought $1.766 million -- a new world record for a Greek red-figured vase.

The following day, a late Hellenistic marble statue of a muse, and a Roman marble of Aphrodite each sold for more than $1.0 million in spirited bidding.

Not to be outdone, Sotheby's topped the week by selling a bronze head of an athlete catalogued as early Roman (circa late 1st Century BC/1st Century AD) after a Greek original, hammered down for a record $4.5 million to an American dealer who outlasted a British dealer.

A spectacular 1st century BC/AD imperial silver skyphos decorated with lions, wild donkeys and monkeys sold to a New England private collector for $643,750.

Quality antiquities, especially those with established provenance, are clearly most prized in the current market. However, the euphoric tenor of the major pieces sent the prices of some lesser quality and "stale" objects soaring among less knowledgeable bidders. Seasoned dealers, employing expertise rather than emotion, purchased selectively and expressed general uneasiness about the rapid price inflation which is gripping segments of the antiquities market.