A bust of an ancient Egyptian goddess, thought to have been a high-quality imitation, has been authenticated as a 2,500-year-old sculpture by one of the masters of the time.
An oddly shiny surface and unusually preserved nose led some to dismiss it as fake when it appeared at auction in Gloucestershire, UK, in 2022, after 40 years in a private collection.
In fact, the 24cm bust dates from the reign of Amasis II (570–526BC) and attributed to a sculptor known as the Greywacke Master after the stone from which it is made. It is thought to have come from the Temple of Neith at Sais, Egypt.
However, it was given a “nose job” by 18th century Italian craftsmen attempting to restore the badly damaged face and then painted over in later years. It was probably damaged by invading forces when Amasis II’s rule fell.
A section of stone from the back of the original statue was used to create the replacement nose so it would look as convincing as possible. It also underwent some “reworking” in ancient times as was common when sculptures were repurposed for new patrons or royalty.
It has been authenticated after more than a year of forensic investigation by David Aaron antiques dealership in Mayfair, west London, scientists, conservators and Egyptologists.
Iconoclasm
The team was able to plot its journey from Wadi Hammamat, where the stone was quarried, to damage through iconoclasm, the restoration practices of 18th-century Italy, to an appearance on the Parisian art market, and finally its misidentification in modern times.
As part of the professional “de-restoration” it was stripped back to the original, removing wax and pigment, then rebuilt using the fake nose as this was considered an important part of its story.
David Aaron said it should be considered one of the finest Egyptian sculptures in private hands today and has a value of £1.5 million ($2 million). The gallery describes the work as a “masterfully carved Egyptian statue, long misattributed and overlooked, now revealed to be a true masterpiece of Late Period sculpture”. It is a “striking head, elegantly carved, with serene features and a striated wig”, it said.
Provenance hunters
When it reappeared in 2022, its earliest known provenance was its appearance in a Christie's sale in 1978, when it was bought by a relative of the unnamed 2022 seller. It was even misattributed as a male bust because the overprinting and wax made the stone difficult to assess.
Its restoration, although technically impressive, is now long outdated and resulted in doubts being cast on the sculpture’s authenticity for a generation.
The team then managed to uncover earlier provenance dating from a 1923 Hotel Drouot sale in Paris, confirming the statue’s ancient origins. The head was photographed in the sales catalogue, complete with its new nose. Its uraeus, or serpent emblem in the headdress, was already missing.
The sale notes of the auctioneer, Andre Desvouges, record that it was sold for 2,000 francs to a Mr Miguel, who is thought to have been a prolific collector or dealer as he bought several items.
A reference to the bust was also found in the notes of Bernard Bothmer, the curator of the Brooklyn Museum in the 1950s, described as “lady or goddess with striated wig, black basalt, nose restored.”
Greywacke Master
Advanced material analysis, including optical petrography, SEM imaging and X-ray spectrometry confirmed the stone as Egyptian metagreywacke, highly prized in the Late Period for sculptures of royal and divine figures.
Further scholarship then linked the bust to a known collection of works, attributed to an ancient Egyptian workshop or artist known as the “Greywacke Master”.
“It is a sculpture that has many stories,” said Salomon Aaron, director of David Aaron. “One is of ancient Egypt, when master sculptors produced perfected forms of divinity and royalty, then the resulting iconoclasm that came from the end of the dynasty and a turbulent change of power.
“Later, the Italian restoration workshops of the 18th century. Lastly, of the early modern art market, where the desire to ‘perfect’ antiquities often led to dramatic interventions, in this case a dark grey overprinting. Now, by removing those additions, we can see the original goddess and Egyptian masterpiece emerge once again.”
David Aaron gallery said in its report of the work that the 18th century restoration was “clearly done by someone incredibly skilled in stone carving, and who had great confidence in their ability to restore ancient Egyptian work – once the stone removed from the underside of the bust had been carved, there would be no material for a second attempt without doing further damage to the statue … to modern eyes the restored nose simply raised questions about the sculpture’s antiquity. With these restorations removed, it became clear that the piece was truly an ancient Egyptian masterpiece.”
Egyptologist Biri Fay, who carried out close stylistic analysis, said: “The chronicle of this sculpture began over two-and-a-half millennia ago, during the reign of King Amasis. Subsequent alterations, as well as damage both intentional and accidental, contributed subtly to the serene beauty of the original. The creator of this sculpture was the Greywacke Master who carved some of the most beautiful statuary made in ancient Egypt.”
A Goddess Rediscovered will be exhibited by David Aaron at Frieze Masters 2025 from October 15-19 at Regent’s Park, London.
