A bust of Alexander dug up in the UK

The news is not entirely new, but digging up a bust of Alexander the Great in the UK deserves all our attention. The Daily Mail made headlines saying that a 2,000-year-old bust of Alexander was recovered from the gardens of Sutton Place, near Guildford, UK. This property once belonged to Paul Getty, who later built a copy of the Villa dei Papiri from Herculaneum in California. 

[Picture from Daily Mail]

It was the estate’s gardener who discovered this bust during restoration works in 1984. The property was owned by an American art collector, who had acquired it from Mr. Getty’s son in 1980. Apparently, this art collector did not know the value of the find, and the gardener was allowed to keep his find, which he did all these years. 

He recently had a clear-out and took his belongings to an auction house. There, it was thought to be an 18^th or 19th-century copy of the Roman god Hercules. 

Luckily, it caught the attention and interest of antiquity dealers, who recognized this 15-inch high bust as a young Alexander, wearing the lion headdress. It was dated to the 1^st century BC, but apparently nothing transpired about its country of origin or the name of the sculptor. 

How or when it arrived in the UK remains a mystery. It must have been buried before Paul Getty owned the property, as he most certainly would have recognized an original Alexander. 

This beautiful bust was eventually sold for almost 400,000 GBP and could have reached a higher price had it not undergone some repair of its nose and headdress. 

Statues from antiquity always have a story to tell, but here we have nothing to go by. As the new owner may be a private party, the likelihood of getting a thorough analysis is very slim.