Giving Head to Aphrodite

In spring of 2006 Mrs. Lawrence Copley Thaw, Sr. of New York, consigned a marble figure of Aphrodite to Sotheby's June 2006 sale of antiquitiess. The 4-foot-6-inch statue is a marble copy from the late 1st century A.D. of an earlier Greek bronze sculpture. (Many scholars argue that Aphrodite is the most widely reproduced female statue in antiquity.) As is not uncommon with Antiquities, the figure was missing parts -- in this case, her head and one arm were missing.

Sotheby's experts did some research after one of them, Mr. Florent Heintz, remembered an engraving published in 1836 of the complete figure. Mr. Heintz thought he remembered that Sotheby's had sold a similar head in 2002. Was it possibly the one belonging to Mrs. Thaw's headless figure?

Sotheby's then contacted the private collector who had purchased the head in 2002. The owner graciously offered to bring it from Houston, Texas, where she lived, to New York to see if Mr. Heintz's theory proved correct. When the head arrived in New York, the dimensions of the neck, grain of the marble, weathering of both pieces, style of carving, tilt and turn of the head, combined with the existence of the engraving, proved that the head did in fact belong with the body.

At the June 2006 auction, where the headless statue was to be auctioned off, the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University bid on her and won her for $968,000. Since the owner of the head had agreed to make the piece available for private sale exclusively to the successful purchaser of the body, the museum was immediately able to purchase the head for $50,000.

Thus, Aphrodite has had her first documented head since 1836.

"This is an incredibly exciting moment for our institution. We are actively building a collection of Ancient Art of peerless quality and this piece is without question the finest Aphrodite in the United States. The opportunity to own a piece of this importance in its entirety was irresistible and she will assume a position of prominence in our collection," said Jasper Gaunt, Curator of Greek and Roman Art at the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University. (Yet, the only thing visible on their website is the head.)

Now the questions remains, who has Venus de Milo's arms?