Object Description

Apulian Gnathia Bottle

Apulian Gnathia bottle, female winged bust, with horizontal rows of curls, left, with large open wings. Decorated in added white, yellow, and red.

Identification Date

01 Oct 2019

Identification Location

Royal-Athena Galleries, New York

Artefact History

Before 1988

Three images, depicting the same bottle, suggest that the antiquities dealer Gianfranco Becchina was in possession of this artefact. The images were discovered by Tsirogiannis in the archive confiscated from the antiquities dealer Gianfranco Becchina.

1988

In September 1988, the bottle was acquired from Becchina in Basel, by Jerome Eisenberg, owner of the Royal-Athena Galleries, New York. 

01 Oct 2019

The bottle appeared in the website of the Royal-Athena Galleries, with a provenance ‘Ex J. M. E. collection, New York, acquired in Basel, September 1988’. Tsirogiannis identifies the bottle in October 2019,

March 2020

In March 2020 the bottle appeared as ‘SOLD’ on the website of Royal-Athena Galleries.

Artefact Status

October 2020

Unknown. The identity of the person who purchased this bottle in March 2020 is not known and Royal-Athena Galleries was permanently closed in October 2020 announcing that the remaining artefacts were transferred to ‘Hixenbaugh Ancient Art’.

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