Alexander as the sun god Helios

Once again, there is a legal fight about an ancient artifact. This time it is about a marble bust of Alexander the Great from 300 BC. It represents the king as Helios, the god of the sun. 

[From the Art Newspaper, Courtesy of Safani Gallery]

The NY District Attorney Court document states that the bust was unearthed during excavations of the Basilica Aemilia in Rome in the early 1900s. It may have been stolen from the Antiquarium Forense in Rome and surfaced in 1974 at an auction at Sotheby’s. In 2011 it was again auctioned at Sotheby’s and sold to a private collector. The latter sold it again to its present owner, the Safani Gallery in New York, in 2017. Early 2018, the Italian Ministry of Culture claimed that the head was stolen and rightfully belonged to Italy. 

That’s how this lawsuit started in 2019 – one of many such cases worldwide. Why does it take more than a century to declare a theft and to raise the question of provenance, more so since, in this case, the Alexander head passed through the renowned auction house of Sotheby’s twice? Such auctions are usually attended by Italian officials as well. 

Anyway, the ownership of the precious artifact remains unresolved for now, and the head stays in the custody of the D.A.