Etruscan bronze mirror, 4th century BC, £390,000 at Christie’s on July 5.
A moment of good old-fashioned saleroom drama emerged at Christie’s antiquities sale on July 5 when an Etruscan bronze mirror, estimated at £10,000-15,000, sold at £390,000 (plus 25/20/12% buyer’s premium). The buyer was a European institution.
Well-known from a number of publications, this 4th century BC mirror is finely engraved with an elaborate scene chronicled in Euripides’ lost play Telephos. Telephos, the mythical king of Mysia, was the father of both Tyrrhenus and Tarchon, two of the legendary founders of the Etruscan race.