Artemis and the Stag

From The Buffalo News
'Artemis and the Stag' sculpture on display in NYC
by Colin Dabkowski - News Arts Writer

Updated: 01/07/08 4:26 PM

"Artemis and the Stag," the famous 2,000-year-old bronze sculpture sold in a controversial auction last year by the Albright-Knox Art Gallery is now on view in New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Albright-Knox director Louis Grachos confirmed that the sculpture is on loan to the museum from an unnamed private collector, though it is not part of its permanent collection.

"I'm absolutely pleased that the sculpture is on public view, and of course at the Metropolitan it'll be seen by tens of thousands of people on a monthly basis," Grachos said. "We're delighted that 'Artemis and the Stag' is on public view."

The sculpture, a late Hellenistic/early Roman bronze hailed as one of the most important statues ever sold at auction, went on view last week in the museum's new gallery for antiquities. It now stands among an impressive collection of Greek and Roman sculptures that ranks as one of the finest in the world.

The whereabouts of the sculpture had been unknown since it was sold last March at Sotheby's auction house in New York City to an anonymous European collector for $28.6 million. It set a record both for the most expensive sculpture and antiquity ever sold at auction, though both of those records have since been eclipsed. It also served as the biggest single sale in a series of auctions that bolstered the Albright-Knox's endowment for the acquisition of new art by $67.2 million.