September 01, 2008
APOLLO MAGAZINE: Art à la Française. This month Paris hosts the world's most beautiful art and antiques fair, the Biennale des Antiquaires. By Susan Moore
(...) Arguably the outstanding presentation of the 2006 Biennale was that of Phoenix Ancient ARt. This year, the Geneva and New York-based dealers ofer such works as a Greek helmet of Phrygian type dating from the 4th century B.C. (Fig. 1). The tall 'Phrygian' leather pointed cap is here transfomred into bronze and iron, its cheek pieces ornamented by a bearded jaw, chin and the half-open mouth of a man topped with a wonderful scrolling moustache. An appliqué above the rim adds a winged striging nude male youth. It appears to be the best-preserved and most complete example of its type. Striking, too, is a Sumerian alabaster statuette of a worshipper, Early Dynastic II, of around 2700-2500 B.C. The upper part of his skirt is carved in registers of archaic Sumerian inscriptions and the lower finished with beautifully carved long tips of sheep wool. (...)