98 - A COMPLETE AND EXCEPTIONALLY WELL-PRESERVED PHOENICIAN LEAD SARCOPHAGUS, LATE HELLENISTIC TO EARLY ROMAN PERIOD, CIRCA 150 BC-AD 50

A COMPLETE AND EXCEPTIONALLY WELL-PRESERVED PHOENICIAN LEAD SARCOPHAGUS, LATE HELLENISTIC TO EARLY ROMAN PERIOD, CIRCA 150 BC-AD 50 Published: Murray Eiland, ‘Materials and Manufacture’ in Mougins Museum of Classical Art, catalogue, p. 178, fig. 53. Exhibited: Musée d’Art Classique de Mougins (Mougins Museum of Classical Art), June 2011–August 2023, inventory number MMoCA.47. Decorated in relief, the long rectangular sides with a band of laurel leaves and a frieze divided into six panels by Corinthian columns, alternately showing dolphins with a central Medusa mask and laurel leaves with a central seated sphinx, a border of scrolling vines below. The arched end panels similarly decorated, one with a temple facade formed by four Corinthian columns, a vase between the outermost columns issuing foliate tendrils spiraling upwards, and a pediment above bordered by laurel leaves, with ivy leaves at the terminals and a central roundel enclosing a Medusa mask; the other with an eight-armed cross formed by four twisted rods terminating in ivy leaves and centered by a roundel enclosing a Medusa mask. Provenance: Collection of Graham Geddes, Melbourne, Australia, acquired from Sotheby's London in the early 1980s. Bonhams London, 15 October 2008, lot 102, sold for GBP 9,600 or approx. EUR 18,500 (converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing). The private collection of Christian Levett, France, acquired from the above and from thereon permanently exhibited in the Musée d’Art Classique de Mougins, the Museum of Classical Art in Mougins, France. Graham Geddes is an Australian collector and dealer who has travelled the globe for over fifty years in search of the beautiful, the obscure, and the sublime. Driven by a passion for history, objects, and the inexorable thrill of acquisition, Geddes assembled an impressive collection spanning from the Palaeolithic era to Late Antiquity, encompassing works from Mesopotamia to France and ranging from arrowheads to exquisitely crafted amphorae, all of them bearing witness to significant turning points in the development of ancient civilizations. Christian Levett (b. 1970) is a British commodities trader-turned-collector whose passion for collecting began in childhood. After building early collections of medals, art, and natural history books, he turned to antiquities in the early 2000s, quickly establishing himself as one of the most active private collectors in the field. In 2011, he founded the Musée d’Art Classique de Mougins (Mougins Museum of Classical Art) in southern France, where antiquities are exhibited in dialogue with works by modern and contemporary artists influenced by the classical tradition. Since retiring from commodities in 2016, Levett has devoted himself full-time to art and philanthropy, sponsoring academic scholarships and supporting archaeological excavations, including at Hadrian’s Villa in Tivoli. Condition: Good condition with expected wear, manufacturing irregularities, areas of corrosion, signs of prolonged burial, obvious losses, old repairs, light warping. The interior of the coffin is reinforced by a removable, custom-made acrylic glass support structure, commissioned by the Musée d’Art Classique de Mougins to museum conservation and safety standards. The structure provides substantial additional stability to the coffin and furthermore facilitates its safe handling and transportation. A comparable custom-made support system would likely cost approximately EUR 4,000–5,000 to have built today. French Export License: Certificat d’exportation pour un bien culturel, no. 258289, dated 28 November 2025, has been granted. A copy accompanies this lot. Weight: 127kg Dimensions: Length 169.3 cm Lead sarcophagi rank among the most distinctive and technically remarkable products of the funerary culture of the ancient Phoenician coast. Although produced in a number of centers, principally Tyre and Sidon, complete examples surviving with their original form substantially intact are exceptional. The inherent softness and weight of lead, combined with two millennia of burial, recovery, handling, and subsequent movement, left many surviving examples crushed, distorted, fragmented, or incomplete. The remarkable state of preservation of the present sarcophagus therefore gives a particularly rare impression of the monumental appearance these objects originally possessed. Due to length restriction on Drouot this entry is shortened. For full description please visit www.zacke.at.