Roman Emperor Torso Sells for a Record $34.3 million at Sotheby's
A marble torso made in the earliest days of the Roman Empire has set a new world record for any ancient classical sculpture at auction.
At Sotheby’s New York on Wednesday night, after 14 minutes of what the auction house described as fiery bidding, the sculpture sold for $34.3 million in the Magnum Opus Evening Auction.
The torso probably represents one of the Julio-Claudian emperors, carved in two parts, standing with the weight on his right leg and wearing a tunic, leather corselet with fringed lappets falling at the waist and shoulders, bronze cuirass, and paludamentum falling from the left shoulder over the back and formerly over the extended left forearm, the bronze breastplate decorated in relief on the chest with the god Sol emerging from the waters in a frontal quadriga and on the abdomen with two Victories flanking a trophy and hanging shields onto it, a large inverted palmette below with scrolling acanthus and rosettes on either side, the upper row of pteryges decorated with alternating feline heads above lotus flowers and addorsed rams' heads above palmettes, the lower row with alternating gorgoneia and palmettes, a bearded head interrupting the sequence on the right hip, the neck carved out for insertion of a portrait head.
Main Image: Courtesy Sotheby's