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A marble torso of a Roman emperor without a head, arms, or legs was sold at Sotheby’s for $34,3 million — a record sum for ancient Roman sculpture. In 14 minutes of bidding, five collectors drove the price to nearly three times the pre-sale estimate. The two-thousand-year-old statue depicts one of the members of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, which ruled the Roman Empire from 27 BC to 68 AD — presumably Augustus, Tiberius, or Claudius. During World War II the sculpture from the private Neumann family collection was hidden in a sealed space between the doors of an Austrian house. In 2010 it was sold for $7,36 million. Now the headless emperor has increased in price almost fivefold. Sotheby’s does not disclose the name of the new owner.
Telegram publication
