About five years ago (i.e. in August, 2012) or so I came across a couple of mosaics (three, actually) being offered for sale by Phoenix Ancient Art. Just the other day, however, I noticed that the photos were no longer on my blogpost and I assumed had been taken down by Phoenix. Here’s my original blogpost:

Mystery Mosaic | rogueclassicism https://rogueclassicism.com/2012/08/15/mystery-mosaic/

So imagine my surprise today when I’m poking around Phoenix’ site and see that they still have the two I was most interested in five years ago. Here’s the mask (Roman Mosaic Panel of a Theater Mask – Phoenix Ancient Art ):

… and here’s the athlete (Roman Mosaic Panel of an Athlete – Phoenix Ancient Art )

So far, so good … it’s been in the same shop for five years. Checking out the provenance — Asfar and Sarkis — brought me something more interesting. In 2013, the ‘mask’ apparently was sold and realized a good price at Christie’s (A ROMAN MARBLE AND GLASS MOSAIC PANEL )

 

It’s clearly the same mosaic. What’s going on here?

UPDATE (a few minutes later): The Satyr and Maenad piece I mentioned in my post five years ago appears to have been up for sale in Monaco in 2014: The most prestigious salon of art and antiques in Monaco to be held from 12 to 16 June 2014 in Monte-Carlo (scroll down almost to the bottom). Not sure if it sold …