Etruscan bronze attachments in Sotheby’s sale and and Bonhams’ Sardinian lamp said to match items in convicted dealers’ archives
The auction houses Sotheby’s and Bonhams are facing a call to withdraw two antiquities from sale in London today from an archaeologist who raised “serious suspicions” that the items came from illicit excavations.
Lot 68 in the Sotheby’s sale is a pair of decorative Etruscan bronze attachments, dating from circa early fifth century BC, expected to fetch between £50,000 and £70,000. Lot 83 in the Bonhams sale is a Sardinian bronze boat-shaped lamp, circa eighth century BC, estimated between £2,000 and £3,000.
