Errant Artemis Re-emerges at the Met...

Sorry to be such an absentee blogger but duty called and I was off advising for the past few weeks. During my research I had the chance to once again call on the Watson Library within the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Their holdings are amazing but to call their process "old school" is being kind. Don't believe me....check out their guidelines. Anyway, after I had viewed what I needed I decided to take a turn though the Greek and Roman galleries. Since their much touted reinstallation I thought I had investigated every treasure...apparently not. Behold, right in the vestibule of the Roman Court I came face-to-face with a rather scandalous "old friend".

This Imperial Roman glamour girl was the center of a hot debate when she was auctioned off at Sotheby's in 2007. You see, she was part of a large group of traditional antiquities and fine arts that were deaccessioned from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York in order to raise funds to acquire modern and contemporary art instead. Museum circles and donors were outraged to think that long held artworks could be sold-off from institutions at the whim of a curator or board. It was a PR nightmare for Albright-Knox but the rare works attracted frenzied bidding and wild results. This unusual and large bronze of Artemis with a stag fetched $28.6 million against a seemingly modest estimate of $5-7 million. She holds the current highest price paid for an antiquity or any other sculpture for that matter. Of course the Met's cataloging mentions nothing of the scandal and discreetly notes that she is on loan from a private collection. Your casual gallery goer would breeze by and never understand her full history and rarity from the scant information provided. For now she is on loan and still in the public eye. Check her out while you can...