Press Release New York
For Immediate Release
New York | +1 212 606 7176 | Lauren Gioia | Lauren.Gioia@Sothebys.com |
Dan Abernethy | Dan.Abernethy@sothebys.com |
Sotheby’s To Offer Property from the
Collection of the Late Clarence Day
Single Owner Evening Sale of Antiquities will take place on 7 December 2010
A Marble Portrait Bust Of The Deified Antinous, Roman Imperial, Reign
of Hadrian, Cira AD 130-138 (est. $2/3 million)
Sotheby’s is delighted to announce a single owner sale of important Antiquities from the Collection of the late
Clarence Day to be held on the evening of 7 December 2010. The sale will include approximately 40 lots
and is expected to raise $5/8 million.* Proceeds from the sale will benefit The Day Foundation. Among the
highlights will be A Marble Portrait Bust of the Deified Antinous, Roman Imperial, Reign of Hadrian,
Circa A.D. 130-138 (est. $2/3 million) and A Green Porphyry Figure of an Egyptian Royal Sphinx,
Roman Imperial, Circa 1st Century A.D. (est. $800,000/1.2 million). In addition to the Antiquities sale,
Housatonic, a major work on paper by Arshile Gorky, will be included in the Contemporary Art Evening Sale
in New York on 9 November (est. $800,000/1.2 million).
The Marble Portrait Bust of the Deified Antinous is the only known Classical representation of Antinous,
outside of his coin portraits, to be identified by an inscription. The youth, deified by Roman Emperor Hadrian
upon his drowning in the Nile in A.D. 138 is represented larger than life-size in the heroic nude, his sensual
beauty idealized to perfection. The bust boasts impressive provenance having been in the collection of M.
Peretie, Chancellor of the French Consulate in Beirut, and then in the famed de Clercq Collection, of which a
significant portion is now in the Louvre.
The Green Porphyry Figure of an Egyptian
Royal Sphinx is a direct Roman emulation or
replica of a specific ancient Egyptian sphinx of the
New Kingdom, which was excavated in the 1850s,
in what was in antiquity the sanctuary of the
Egyptian gods in Rome, the Iseum complex. The
Day sphinx was carved in Roman times to serve as
a pendent for the ancient Egyptian sphinx and is
therefore most likely to come from the same site.
It once belonged to the legendary collector and art dealer Hagop Kevorkian, who acquired it before World
War II, probably in Europe.
Another important work being offered in the single owner sale is a Cycladic Marble Figure of a Goddess,
Attributed to the Rodgers Sculptor, Early Bronze Age, Circa 2500-2400 B.C. Acquired by Mr. Day
from the distinguished dealer Mathias Komor in New York (est. $300/500,000), this figure is exceptional
in the way it conveys both power and repose by its size, sturdy proportions, and collected, introspective pose.
Contemporary Art – 9 November 2010
Housatonic was executed by Arshile Gorky in 1943, a breakthrough year for the artist, and demonstrates his
unique position within the New York school of Abstract Expressionists as an interpreter of the European
Surrealist manifesto (est. $800,000/1.2 million). Gorky’s chief inspiration was landscape and this work is
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named after the large New England river familiar to Gorky from visits
to the Connecticut countryside. Housatonic exemplifies Gorky’s skill
at combining the application of jewel-toned crayon within velvety black
ink contours to achieve an array of moods related to the sense of
sunshine, shade, rocky precipices, water and foliage. Acquired by Mr.
Day in 1974, Housatonic was previously in the prestigious Norton
Simon collection. The painting will be on display in Sotheby’s York
Avenue galleries from 5 November.
Clarence Day
Clarence Day will be remembered as a devoted philanthropist. An obituary in the Memphis Commercial
Appeal mentioned a number of organizations that had received gifts from Mr. Day and The Day Foundation,
including the Mayo Clinic Foundation, St. Mary's School, the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, The Early
Childhood Institute at Mississippi State University, Boy Scouts, and Rhodes College. Mr. Day made many of
his significant charitable donations through The Day Foundation. One of the beneficiaries of The Day
Foundation is Youth Villages, a Memphis-based charity committed to children’s behavioral and mental health.
With support from The Day Foundation, Youth Villages established its renowned Transitional Living
Program, dedicated to preparing foster children for the transition to adulthood. Mr. Day was also a patron of
the arts; his most notable donation being his gift in 1989 of 60 pieces of Greek, Roman, Iranian, Egyptian,
Etruscan and Byzantine antiquities to the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art.
*Estimates do not include buyers premium
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