Greek, Roman, Egyptian & Other Antiquities

A metal detectorist searching in a new field for the first time was rewarded with the discovery of a rare Roman solidus coin.

Ahead of its auction in Salisbury, a sapphire intaglio ring has been re-catalogued after being recognised as one of the renowned Marlborough gems.

Christie’s has reiterated that it “carried out extensive due diligence” into a head of Tutankhamun after the Egyptian National Committee for Antiquities Repatriation (NCAR) said that it will instruct a UK law firm to file a lawsuit over its £4m sale.

A very rare Roman gold coin, found by a metal detectorist in a field in Kent last month, will come to auction with an estimate of £70,000-100,000.

Christie’s is to sell a remarkable collection of engraved gems from the Classical world, formerly in the Sangiorgi collection, in New York.

Bronze Age golden jewellery and a Roman goddess kept in a margarine tub are among the discoveries dug up across the UK.

The London auction calendar in early December offered a busy schedule of antiquities, sculpture and works of art sales running side-by-side with the Old Master series. Overall the sales were relatively well-received with improved selling rates on previous years. Here we select five highlights from the series.

A Roman bronze foot from a monumental statue topped an auction of Antiquities held by Bonhams in London when it sold for a hammer price of £160,000, far in excess of its £10,000-15,000 estimate.

Workers charged with the demolition of the former Cressoni Theater in Como, Lombardy have unearthed a hoard of 5th century Roman gold coins.

A replica of the largest Roman mosaic to be found in Britain could return home to Gloucestershire where it was made.

A 3000-year-old Assyrian relief unearthed from the royal palace at Nimrud will be offered at Christie’s New York on October 31. It is expected to exceed $10m.

A Persian limestone relief sculpture is to be returned to Iran, a New York court has ruled.

A coin and antiquities dealer has been arrested as part of an international investigation into a £35m crime network dealing in looted artefacts.

A small bronze figure of a horse from ancient Greece is at the centre of a New York court case after Greece’s ministry of culture demanded its return and stopped its sale at auction.