and the expert talk about as of a single model

This is the chance of the art market. This weekend, city and Prefecture of Morbihan, valves will become the global epicentre of trading in Greek and Roman Antiquities. It is said that many hotels display full to accommodate merchants from London or New York. They are there to assist and participate in the dispersal of a collection assembled by a certain Louis-Gabriel Bellon (1819-1899), which was clearly his life fascinated by Greek and Roman Antiquities. Two thousand objects sold in 380 lots for a total estimate of 400,000 euros. But the expert Christophe Kunicki awaiting at least twice. The current policy of the organizers of auctions is to display low estimates to attract potential buyers. The average value of the lots presented is often less than 1,000 euros. More generally, despite the international crisis, the market of antiquities is rather well. Last January, at Drouot, a spectacular "Aphrodite genetrix" marble has been awarded 1,415,000 euros and a bust of woman, a Queen or an Egyptian goddess of Ptolemaic era, for the same price. At the Maastricht fair, from 13 to March 22, the merchant of London, Rupert Wace, gave several works, including a statue of Aphrodite in marble of 1st century b.c. acquired by an American collector for 400,000 euros. However, it is clear that "consumers" of Antiquities of today are lovers of values not only safe but still decorative. All those held by collectors have a clear aesthetic power. Finish the taste for the small details of these missing civilization. This capacity Louis-Gabriel Bellon was in a distant spirit of the taste of our time. There, he, accumulated small parts which fed his scientific curiosity.

The story of this man is not identified. His profession is unknown but it is known that he was originally a Lille industrial family. His death, his son has created a private museum to show all that he had amassed at Saint-Nicolas-lez-Arras. But in 1915, victim of the bombing, the institution suffered considerable losses. In 1920, all, or what remains, is stored in crates and the heirs keep the reserve... Until today. One of them lives in valves, which explains the auction took place.

Three large parties

Result, a collection of 19th century is almost intact. The phenomenon is rare. The sale, which receives little promotion, is organized into three main parts: Greek vases, glass and finally, and above all, a mass of tanagras. As an excellent exhibition at the Louvre in 2003, "Tanagra, myth, and archaeology", their history in the contemporary world was born in 1878. These originating statuettes of Greece showing the clothes of an exquisite drape graceful women, immediately site creators of the time.

Rodin or Gérôme, "Tanagra", would embody the elegant and mysterious Parisienne. Tanagra is one of the cities of Boeotia, a region located 150 km from Athens. Its inhabitants, called softie, are considered "ploucs" era and their artistic production is initially rather coarse. To 340-300 BC, the beautiful terracotta Tanagréennes see the day. They are known widely in all the Mediterranean until 200 BC, before "rebirth" in the 19th century. They are found at Vannes. There is first the false, dated from the 19th century, which are number 100. They have even, according to the expert, a rating. The most beautiful are estimated from 300 to 400 euros. Among the more unusual older models, there is this earthenware dated to 525-475 BC High 12 cm representing a player ball or the same time a dough crouched before its blast furnace (estimates: between 3,000 and 5,000 euros).

An ancient cave of Ali Baba

The Bellon collection also contains representations of characters from theatre transvestites in women the latter were not allowed to play. It is thus a representation of actor disguised as a prostitute dated from about 300 BC (estimated 400 euros) or another showing an actor playing the nurse of the same period with the same estimate. The "classic" models of elegant great tanagras (25 cm), the most detailed and best preserved are estimated 4,000 euros.

In the field of the vases, the sale contains also many sights. In the category lives and orgy among the Greeks, there is a vase to small (15 cm) handles decorated with scenes of drinkers. One defecates, another fun to equilibrium of the vases. It was designed in Laconia, South of the Peloponnese to 550 b.c. and the expert talk about as of a single model. It is the highest estimate of sales: 20,000 euros. For a lower estimate of half a verseuse of Lucania, corresponding to a part of the current Calabria of the 400 years b.c. to sets of woman with Eros identified, is proposed as the hand of a painter called "the painter of Palermo".

All of this sale is similar to an ancient kind of cave of Ali Baba. Certainly will be to make pleasure to good balance despite the influx of international specialists.