Object Description
Pair of Pegasus Horses
Two bronze Pegasus horses, dated at the 6th century BC, depicted on the rim of a large bronze object, possibly a dish.
Identification Date
March 2010
Identification Location
Phoenix Ancient Art gallery, New York.
Artefact History
Before 1993
Two regular-print images (both horses in one of them, one only in the other image) from the archive confiscated from the antiquities dealer Giacomo Medici. The horses are depicted on a white plastic tray, covered with soil and unrestored, the two of them only (in one image) or with other antiquities in similar condition (second image)
1993
Robin Symes and Christos Michaelides sold the two (now restored) bronze Pegasus horses to the private collectors William and Linda Beierwaltes in Colorado.
2006
The Beierwaltes consigned their entire antiquities collection, to include the bronze Pegasus pair, to Phoenix Ancient Art.
2010
Tsirogiannis identifies the bronze Pegasus pair at the ‘Phoenix Ancient Art’ together with other Medici objects consigned by the Beierwaltes and notifies the then US policeman with whom visited the gallery. No action appears to have been taken.
2010
Michael Steinhardt purchased the Bronze Pegasus horses from ‘Phoenix Ancient Art’ for $400,000.
2018-2021
The horses were identified by Dr Daniela Rizzo and Maurizio Pellegrini, using the same Medici images, but while the horses were already owned by Michael Steinhardt. An additional image of the two horses, photographed in the Steinhardt’s apartment, cleaned, restored and on a set of stands, was discovered was apparently discovered by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office among the Steinhardt’s files.
December 2021
On December 2021, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office announced that the pair of the bronze Pegasus horses will be repatriated to Italy.
Artefact Status
February 2022
Repatriation to Italy took place on February 2022.