It is reported New York Times.
However, Egyptian art historians have been concerned that the cosmetic ship might have been stolen by British archaeologist Howard Carter, who discovered the tomb of King Tutankahan. Carter spent years sorting out thousands of items found in the grave, some of whom said had entered their collection illegally.
The Apollo art auction house has listed insect-shaped artifacts designed to fix Cole or perfume as “Guinol grasshopper”, with an estimated £300,000 to £500,000 (about $400,000 to $675,000). The auction house also noted that it was initially sold for $1.2 million with the original invoice.
The grasshopper has a segmented body, the upper wings are made of painted ivory and are decorated with a checkerboard format, wooden lower wings and head illustrations with black eyes. The auction house noted: “The wings swing outwards to reveal a small oval cavity.”
Promotional materials from the source of the object said: “The ship was handed over to the hands of major 20th-century collectors including Joseph Brummer of New York, and was then acquired by Merrin Gallery in 2007 and acquired by its original invoice.”
The Guennol series belongs to Alastair Bradley Martin, a longtime Brooklyn Museum trustee, and his wife Edith. In December 2007, the limestone figure for the series’ Lion Lion (3000-2800) sold for $57.1 million, and the height of Sotheby’s in New York was estimated at $18 million.
The auction house also noted that the ship’s tools were exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1948 to 2002.
Send to New York TimesThe auction house said, “There is no evidence that the ship comes from the tomb of the boy king. “The project did not appear on any official excavation list.” ”
But Christian Loeben, a German Egyptologist and curator at the Hannover Museum in Germany, told The Hamburgh, Germany New York Times He was “very sure” that the grasshopper did come from the famous tomb because of its lack of damage, indicating the origin of the enclosed room and its style in Egypt that existed in the “accurate period” of the pharaoh’s reign.
The auction house also noted that Grasshopper had been cleared from the database of art loss registers for stolen artifacts and carried a letter of art loss, a “license certificate” for the London-based company.
Even with experts having serious problems with the origin of the artifact, as the Egyptian government never reported the theft or asked for its return, James Ratcliffe. era The grasshopper is in an “embarrassing area”.
Although the Egyptian government has not yet made a claim on the object, experts like Thomas Hoving, former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art have linked it to King Tutankhamen’s Tomb for decades, including the written work “The Untold Story” in Hoving, which was first released by Simon and Schuster.
After Carter’s death, his niece discovered that Tutankarmen’s name was engraved in his belongings, and some were sent back to Egypt. In 2010, the Metropolitan Museum of Art also returned 19 small-scale items from its collection, after previous studies produced “detailed evidence that led us to no doubt conclude” that they came from his grave.
Loeben also wrote about Carter’s archaeological cause, and he also said the artifact should be returned to Egypt. “It’s a moral question.”
