Committed to creating value in the art market. We deepen our market understanding, expand our network, and cultivate a diverse audience. We publish our newsletter targeting intelligent and inquisitive people who are not traditional art world participants. Recognizing a broad demand for insightful critique of art and the art world, plus an under explored dynamic interplay with the growing market for Digital Art, we are developing innovative products to engage and expand our audience and unlock value for our clients.
Sometimes we forget the importance of context for our appreciation of things. A change in setting or display shifts how we perceive an object or person. Presentation and environment shape our experience and judgement.
The designer fashion industry has certainly learned this lesson and is not shy about pulling all the levers to manipulate ahem influence our buying habits. Consider shopping at a thrift store compared to a luxury designer headquarters like Zegna in Milan. The display at most thrift stores is cluttered, with maybe a few highlighted objects, forcing the consumer to visually hunt for those hidden gems. At Zegna, well, that display is meticulously curated, colour coded, and easy on the eyes so you can peruse with a glass of prosecco
[1].
For an artistic example, let us look to Michelangelo’s David, which has moved locations on numerous occasions. The pictures below show the original in its current location inside the Accademia in Florence (top left), a cast copy currently outside the original location in Palazzo Vecchio (bottom left) and a temporarily installed cast copy in the original conceived location on the Duomo (top right). Consider how does your appreciation, reception, and impact of the David change in the different locations?
The David symbolised the defence of Florentine civil liberties threatened by more powerful rival city states. Its position on the duomo would have served as a beacon for Florentines while warning outsiders to not underestimate Florence's strength. When situated in front of the city's civic centre, the message isn't compromised, but due to its visibility gains a more insular focus towering over and inspiring the population. While in the Accademia, well... it loses its inspirational impact on the general population and is now just an artistic ornament of a biblical narrative to be admired and analysed, isn't it?
For a modern equivalent, how would the symbolism of the Statue of Liberty change if you moved it from New York Harbour, to Rockefeller Center, or to The Met?
That’s the power of context in art. Antiquities like Roman art are no exception. More so, the Romans were uber-aware of this effect and placed their goodies with the care and paranoia of a Neiman Marcus brand manager. Today, I'm going to make that point from both directions: how it can be done well, and also by showing you what it looks like when you store your extensive Roman art collection in a thrift store setting.
(Full disclosure: I'm going to be a bit rude. I usually try very hard not to be rude [2]: most people in the art world are working very hard under difficult constraints. Still, art makes me happy, so seeing antiques in a closet with bad lighting makes me angry).
Stop, Hammertime
While the contemporary art world descended onto Miami Beach for Art Basel, those interested in antiques had their eyes in London. As mentioned in part 1, the Mougins Collection had their penultimate auction (in person and online) at Christie’s London on 4 December 2024. It achieved a total of GBP 2,102,940.
The Mougins Collection contained hundreds of pieces, including works from ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome [3]. Over the past year, it has taken five separate auctions to complete the sale of what Christie’s has marketed as a collection ‘Odyssey’.
You know who knows the power of display and context? Emperor Caracalla. Also: Christie's. It's not a co-incidence that advertising for the final sales of this collection used a bust of the Emperor, who is the chief villain in a Hollywood blockbuster that premiered conveniently 2 weeks before the auction.
Thumbnail of Bust of Caracalla for the Mougins Auction on 4 December on the Christie's website.
For our finance bros and broettes, here are some auction statistics:
It continued on 30 January 2024, composed of 36 lots focused on ancient arms and armour. The auction was 100% sold with a total of $6.5 million (against a low estimate of $3.4 million). The top lot was the Guttmann Mouse Helmet fetching $1.2 million.
The second ancient arms and armour sale took place on 8 October 2024, and offered more ancient Greek, Italic and Roman helmets, swords, shields and armour. The auction was 91% sold, with a total of almost $3 million. The top lot was a Greek Bronze Lion Shield Boss, which realised $327,600.
Not too bad financially for what some people consider unimportant old stuff.
Now that I caught your attention with the big $$$, you must be wondering, what is the Mougins Collection? Well I’m glad you asked young padawan…
The Mougins Museum of Classical Art is a private museum founded in Mougins, France in 2011. It closed its doors in August 2023 to make room for a new focus collection that opened in June 2024. To do so, collector and founder, Christian Levett (yes the hedge fund legend), sold a majority of the antiquities collection. The new venture will henceforth be known as FAMM: Female Artists of the Mougins Museum [4].
When we analysed the Goldenberg Collection several months ago, we learned the importance of a unified vision for the successful execution of a collection. The next most important element is the display. In When Goldenberg Met Hirst, we saw how the display and arrangement of art in a space can alter the experience of the viewer, and visually contribute to a vision without overwhelming the entire collection. Each piece must balance, contribute, and coexist.
Ganymede with Jupiter’s Eagle, Robert Mapplethorpe, signed by Michael Ward Stout, Executor, and dated in ink in Estate copyright credit stamp, titled, dated and numbered. Photographed in 1988 and printed in 1989, this work is number four from an edition of ten, gelatin silver print, flush mounted on board, estimate: GBP 6,000 - 8,000. Current bid: GBP 8,500.
Before its sale, the Mougins Museum curated a poignant display of ancient, neoclassical, modern and contemporary art side by side to portray the pervasive and lasting influence of the ancient world. The large and diverse collection of antiquities included Roman, Greek and Egyptian sculpture, vases, coins, jewellery, and the world's largest private collection of ancient arms and armour. Works by Peter Paul Rubens, Marc Chagall, Henri Matisse, Damien Hirst, etc., were included in the collection alongside their ancient sources of inspiration.
This conversation was conveyed through the museum’s contemporary and modern art displays and depictions of the Greek Goddess Aphrodite by Warhol, Dalí and Yves Klein accompanied with 1st and 2nd century AD depictions of the goddess in marble and bronze.
Visual conversation of contemporary and antiquarian art through representations of Aphrodite.
Thematically, I love it: compare/contrast modern pieces in the context of their ancient counterparts. Flawless concept and ethos, top marks. But you also need to execute. And this... this... isn't good:
View of The Gods and Goddesses Gallery at the Mougins Museum.
The paint colour is wrong, the lights are too bright and the floor is glaring. The artworks do not complement each other and cast awkward shadows. If these are Gods and Goddesses, they have been sent to the naughty room, rather than being highlighted in glory.
I hate this so much: the artworks have great artistic and cultural value, but the arrangement is crowded. I feel like I'm in that thrift store, having to hunt through junk. Despite how carefully curated the theme of the collection is, it is hard to draw attention to incredible works when you can’t really stand in front of them at a reasonable distance. How is one supposed to highlight a particular object if it is sharing the wall (off balance!) with another piece? How are you supposed to appreciate a space if you cannot walk around it without fear of knocking another artwork over?
I'll accept that I never visited the collection in person. Perhaps these are bad photos. Still, I have to believe that a larger space, with higher quality light fixtures and different wall paint [5] and floors would have made the collection’s display unquestionable.
Compare the setting above, with how David and the other unfinished statues by Michelangelo are displayed below. Sometimes, less is more.
Often, dividing a collection for sale is a bitter-sweet thing, but in this case... it's doing everyone a favour. Snark aside, it should allow the individual pieces to find their own place, depth and appreciation in other collections.
The Power of Display (and the Display of Power)
The Romans were masters of display, and understood the important socio-political impact of these works especially in public and semi-private spaces. They demonstrated authority and superiority, elegance and beautification, multiculturalism and a unified Roman identity.
As mentioned in part 1, art was utilitarian in Ancient Rome. It wasn’t like today where you go and buy something at a fair because ‘it speaks to your soul’. It was about power, wealth, and the cultivation of narrative. Let’s take a closer look at this ethos as it applies to a work presented at the auction.
A bust like this of Caracalla is what we would call museum quality, especially in terms of the surviving number of his portraits in the ‘sole-ruler’ style dating to the period after he (spoilers!) murdered his brother/co-emperor Geta. We see him in a draped cloak in ¾ profile view as if he is about to look over his shoulder. His hair and beard are short in tight coils [6].
His iconic furrowing brow, stern and piercing expression exudes power, superiority, and probably also fear of his wrath and cruelty. I like to call this attempted intimidation, but I get to say that confidently through the safety of history books two thousand years later rather than through the lived experience of his reign [8].
There was a noticable artistic shift in the appearance of Caracalla as Emperor compared to most of his predecessors. Compare the bust of Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus (also in the Mougins collection). The busts of the predecessors are godlike, and poised with an idealised atmosphere, representing a different display of imperial power. Caracalla clearly breaks from that through this stocky soldier type.
Typically, these portrait busts depict family ancestors in order to demonstrate prestige, flaunt your family lineage, and financial wealth to guests. They were displayed in high traffic areas of a villa or palace, specifically an atrium or tablinum.
In the imperial sphere what would that look like? Imagine the ruling emperor at the time surrounded by portrait busts of his imperial ancestors: Augustus, Claudius, Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius, Trajan- a divine and superior bloodline culminating through the triumphant trials and tribulations of history to the current reign. This is shown rather successfully in Gladiator 2 in the atrium of Lucilla with portrait busts of her ancestors, Augustus and Marcus Aurelius.
Scene from Gladiator 2 with ancestral portrait busts in the atrium. Paramount Pictures.
To repeat and underline the point: consider the impact of the singular busts, cleanly displayed in the context of the atrium of a powerful family. Then consider how the impact deteriorates when it's cluttered on a display with 20 other portrait busts less than a foot apart mixed with other portrait busts of randos?
So we did it! We came, we saw, we conquered the art and history of Rome in three newsletters. We addressed (mostly) everything from its geopolitics, artistic history, the external cultural influences on the Empire, and prevalence in contemporary society. Finally, we considered the impact of context, and how the Romans used art and display to effect power.
Now when someone talks about Rome, its art, or history in general, we can say something clever like, ‘well actually early Roman art was more about establishing its place in history amongst older empires like Greece, Egypt, and Carthage.’ Or maybe something cheeky like, ‘I think with a better display this work would be more enticing.’
That's it with Rome for now, I'm sure we'll be back though! Next week, we'll jump across the pond to consider Art Basel Miami.
Thanks for reading! Please forward to any friends who would enjoy it 😊
[1]
This is not to say you cannot visually appreciate a good thrift store. In fact, it's actually the same example: the thrift store is just as curated, with the clutter "designed" to give the impression of a treasure hunt for secret bargains.
[2]
From Homer (Simpson): 'it's easy to criticize. And fun, too!'.
[3]
And the Roman ones were basically Greek anyway, am I right Francesca 😉.
[4]
If the name didn’t give it away, it will focus on the works of modern and contemporary female artists like Joan Mitchell, Tracey Emin, Elaine de Kooning, Cecily Brown, Barbara Hepworth, Louise Bourgeois, Lee Krasner, and more.
[6]
Is he... attempting to grow a 'stash… Just.. No.. Oh my. [7]
[7]
Okay, that's all my snark for today. Deep Breath.
[8]
Caracalla massacred a total of 20,000 people who were in any way affiliated with Geta after his murder. Also not to mention he had almost the entire male youth population of Alexandria ruthlessly massacred due to their unwelcoming behaviour. But he did build a bathhouse... swings and roundabouts, I suppose!
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Committed to creating value in the art market. We deepen our market understanding, expand our network, and cultivate a diverse audience. We publish our newsletter targeting intelligent and inquisitive people who are not traditional art world participants. Recognizing a broad demand for insightful critique of art and the art world, plus an under explored dynamic interplay with the growing market for Digital Art, we are developing innovative products to engage and expand our audience and unlock value for our clients.