It was originally discovered in Palestine, probably in the 1930s, at the site of Beth Shan on the Sea of Galilee, where myth says Bacchus founded a Greek city.

In 1941, Somerset de Chair, a young British soldier stationed in Jerusalem, spotted the bust in an antique dealer’s window. He eventually brought it home as wounded officer’s kit, but not before the Rockefeller Museum of Jerusalem had taken a plaster cast which remains on display.

It was consigned for sale by Somerset’s son Rodney, accompanied by a wooden plaque inscribed The Beth Shan Bust, Bacchus and Ariadne, Graeco-Roman Period, c.300 BC.

Specialist Madeline Perridge stressed the importance of the provenance proving it had been exported legally.

Estimated at £60,000-90,000, it sold to an English collector for £200,000.