A Bronze Figure of Zeus

A Bronze Figure of Zeus

The bronze statue of Zeus was stolen in 1980 from the Museo Nazionale Romano in Rome. Despite its illicit origin, it reappeared in scholarly and curatorial circles within a few years.

In 1984, a publication by Joyce Geary Volk listed the statue as being in the collection of antiquities dealer Edward H. Merrin. According to the publication, Merrin had acquired it from another dealer who claimed the piece came from a Swiss collector in the late 1960s.

By 1988, the statue was exhibited at the Cleveland Museum of Art as the property of Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence A. Fleischman.

In 2004, a photograph of the statue appeared in a Sotheby’s auction catalogue. This image allowed investigators to trace the object to its consignor, an unnamed gallery in New York.

The bronze statue was recovered in 2010 thanks to the effort of the Carabinieri Tutela del Patrimonio Culturale (TPC)

1

Sculpture – statues, carvings, bronzes, reliefs, figurines

Late Hellenistic or Early Roman Imperial

Sotheby's

Lawrence and Barbara Fleischman Collection, New York

Italy

The Gods Delight: The Human Figure in Classical Bronze, Arielle P. Kozloff and David Gordon Mitten, eds., catalogue of the exhibition at The Cleveland Museum of Art, November 16th, 1988 - January 8th, 1989, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, February 9th - April 9th, 1989, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, May 9th - July 9th, 1989, Cleveland, 1988, no. 29, pp. 168-172, illus.

"A Lysippan Zeus", California Studies in Classical Antiquity 3, 2 [1984] 272-83).  Published by Joyce Geary Volk, who reported that in 1984 the Zeus was the property of Edward H. Merrin: "Mr Merrin purchased it from a dealer who had obtained it from a Swiss collector in the late 1960s".

Casey Bennett

Vanessa Rousseau

Ilaria Bortot