A mood of wallet-opening exuberance persisted throughout Sotheby’s sale. The very next lot after the Guennol Lioness was a South Arabian alabaster figure of a woman with clenched fists and staring eyes, from the third to first centuries B.C. Estimated at $400,000 to $600,000, it went for $1,217,000. An early Roman Imperial marble head of Zeus, circa first century A.D., impressively bearded though somewhat fragmentary, ascended triumphantly beyond its $300,000–$500,000 estimate to reach an Olympian $965,000. A beautiful, life-size marble statue of a lady, also Roman Imperial circa first century A.D., wearing a veil and an elaborately pleated chiton and complete except for a missing hand, was estimated at $70,000 to $100,000 and sold for $481,000 to a woman in the salesroom whom appeared to be a private collector. She beat out Hicham and Ali Aboutaam, owners of New York and Geneva–based Phoenix Ancient Art.

Some interesting, lower-priced pieces also defeated expectations. An Apulian red-figured plate, circa 350–330 B.C., decorated with realistic depictions of a perch, a squid, mussels and a scallop, sold for $49,000 (est. $6,000–$9,000). A colorful fragment of a Roman mosaic portraying a cupid figure throwing his spear encircled by an acanthus stalk brought $103,000 (est. $12,000–$18,000).

Christie’s sale on December 6 totaled $9,267,750 to Sotheby’s $64,955,839—but if you subtract one lot, the Guennol Lioness, the totals are only about $1 million apart. Christie’s estimates were, on the whole, more ambitious—or perhaps more in line with the market—and so prices tended to stay within expectations. The top lot was an Egyptian piece, a monumental sandstone head of Ramesses II (reigned 1279–1213 B.C. and identified by legend with the pharaoh of the biblical
Exodus), which sold for $517,000 (est. $400,000–$600,000). The head, which wears the double crown of Egypt and shows considerable erosion, may have been cut from a portrait of an earlier pharaoh, Amenhotep III. An ancient piece, a rotund—in fact nearly spherical—Anatolian idol from the early 6th millennium B.C., brought $457,000 (est. $300,000–$400,000).

In the ancient jewelry category, unique to Christie’s and for which the house puts out a separate catalogue, some pieces far exceeded their estimates. A Roman emerald ring stone with a carved Julio-Claudian portrait was estimated at a mere $1,000 to $1,500 and climbed all the way to $85,000. A necklace consisting of 21 Roman engraved amethyst ring stones, circa 1st to 2nd century A.D., sold for $121,000 (est. $50,000–$80,000). The stones, which are perfectly graduated in size, were placed much later in a Renaissance-style gold setting.

The dramatic sales left the antiquities community dazed and euphoric. The results, says Eisenberg, “show that antiquities are taking their rightful place in the art world,” and certainly put to rest any worries that high-profile repatriations would have a chilling effect on the market. Eisenberg suggests that on the contrary, the recent cases with the Met and the Getty may simply have made potential buyers aware that antiquities are desirable and available. And some of the same people who pay crazy money for contemporary art may be getting interested in the oldest art of all.