CQ1EditorialCahn’s Quarterly 2/2017English EditionPALAEOLITHIC TO CONTEMPORARY – ICONS AND TOOLSA Joint Project by Jocelyn Wolff and Jean-David Cahn during Art BaselOpening: Tuesday, 13 June, 8-10 p.m.Wednesday-Friday, 14-16 June, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.Saturday, 17 June, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.Venue: Gallery Cahn, Malzgasse 23, BaselRead more on pp. 7-10Dear readers,This year’s fair season got off to a great start with TEFAF Maastricht. We were delighted to see so many of you there, and we hope very much that you will also have an opportunity to experience TEFAF’s exquisite new off-shoot, TEFAF New York. Although the Quarterly will not be published until after TEFAF New York Spring, I have been taking advantage of the lull be-tween the two fairs to do some think-ing out loud, as it were, on how the market is developing.TEFAF Maastricht was as beautiful as ever and its visitor numbers have re-mained more or less constant. There were definitely more Chinese there – among them several institutional buyers – whose impartial curiosity was refreshing. There was also a noticeable increase in the number of American visitors, which could well be a consequence of TEFAF’s presence in New York. The dealers in Maastricht re-ported mixed results. It seems sales were buoyant for some and sluggish for others. The political climate and historic election in the Netherlands looming that same weekend could well have dampened customers’ readi-ness to spend. For some time now I have observed a height-ened sensitivity to price on the part of col-lectors. Doubtless this is in part due to the greater transparency made possible by the availability of information on the internet – to which there can be no objection, of course. As a dealer, however, I try to distance myself from the “bazaar mentality” that has crept up on us over the past few years, bringing with it absurd demands for discounts of 25 per cent and over. Given the existence of such expectations, I think it is worth reminding ourselves that the relationship between buyer and vendor should be one of trust. Trust in its turn presupposes that a dealer’s prices are calculated on the basis of legitimate, but not excessive, margins. If a dealer accedes to a buyer’s demand for an overly generous dis-count, that trust evaporates, since the cus-A BLACK-FIGURE CUP WITH HOPLITES. H. 23.5. Clay, red and white paint. Attic, 3rd quarter of 6th cent. B.C. CHF 28,000tomer is bound to conclude that the prices were inflated all along. After all, the only way to engage in this kind of haggling and to give custom-ers the illusory satisfaction of having “driven a hard bargain” without ruin-ing oneself in the process is to price everything on the high side. That, however, not only corrodes the con-fidence that buyers should have in the classic art trade, but it also plays straight into the hands of the auction houses, where prices are dictated by the market without further ado.As a traditional business, Gallery Cahn remains committed to the ideal – as old-fashioned as it may sound – of a partnership based on mutual trust be-tween art dealer and art collector. For what really counts at the end of the day is not rak-ing in huge profits or chalking up sensational sales figures, but rather cultivating long-term relations with people who share our passion for the art and culture of Antiquity. In this spirit, I wish you a pleasurable time in the company of this issue of Cahn’s Quar-terly.CQ2Cahn’s Quarterly 2/2017Above ground, the initial processing was done in ergasteria, as evidenced by the re-mains of millstones and rectangular stone mills. Rings of limestone of 7-8 m in di-ameter were recently identified as a second type of stone mill. The aim was to obtain as uniform a grain size as possible for the ore-washing process, which entailed using jets of water to flush the ground rock across a sloping surface into a system of rectangular channels (fig. 1). First the pure ore and then the ore-containing rock, each according to its specific weight, settled on different levels and dried.The small blast furnace used to smelt the lead ore was supplied with air via bellows. Whatever slag was left over was removed and the silver-containing lead poured into a cu-pel and heated in a cupellation furnace with a constant air intake to 900-970 degrees, whereupon it oxidized and was run off as litharge. As silver does not oxidize at these temperatures, it collected in the bottom of the cupel. The silver could be further refined by repeating the process. Litharge, convert-ed into lead, was used by both builders and sculptors.Laurion – of Silver a Veritable Fountain, a Treasure Chest in their SoilFrom lead ore to coinsBy Gerburg LudwigThe Athenian mint near the agora was sup-plied with small bars of silver, which it melted and cast into planchets. Placed on an obverse stamp on the anvil with a movable reverse stamp laid on top of it, each planchet was struck by means of a hammer blow. By nationalizing the mines, granting mining concessions to individual entrepreneurs – as evidenced by deeds and border markers inside the mines – and distributing the profits, the Tyrant Peisistratos (546-527 B.C.) shrewdly gave citizens a share in Athens’ economic prosperity. The minting of standardized coins began, among them the tetradrachm that would dominate the eastern Mediterranean region right up to Alexander the Great’s rise to power. The tetradrachm from Athens (fig. 2) on offer here was minted at the time of the Peisistratids. The canonical obverse shows a helmeted Athena, goddess of the polis, and the reverse an owl, the beast symbolizing wisdom and discernment traditionally shown at her side, inside a square field (quadratum incusum). The olive branch affirms the alli-ance with the goddess. The letters ΑθE tell us of the coin’s origins; thus it came to symbol-ize the identity of the polis.When, in Aeschylus’ tragedy The Persians, Atossa, mother of Xerxes I, asks the chorus of Persian Elders what makes the Athenians so special, their leader also tells her of their wealth: “Of silver they possess a verita-ble fountain, a treasure chest in their soil.” (Aeschylus, The Persians, 238). The reference is to the rich deposits of ore in the Lauri-on Hills of south-eastern Attica, which from 6th-4th century B.C. assured the polis of Ath-ens of financial power and wealth. Even today, the region is dotted with slag heaps both ancient and modern, headframes and smelting plants dating from the 19th and 20th centuries, and, somewhat less obviously, with the relics of ancient mineral processing. Thanks to sophisticated investigation tech-niques, especially below ground, we can re-construct both the geology and the mining and extraction methods used in Antiquity. As a western spur of the Attic-Cycladic Meta-morphic Complex, the Laurion Hills consist of irregular strata of marble and slate. The silver-rich galena (lead ore) occurred either as a horizontal contact layer on the layer boundaries in the slate or as a vertical stock through all strata.Extraction began in the uppermost contact layer, in some instances above ground, as the hollowed-out rock faces and mouth holes of short galleries show. Later on, shafts were sunk to afford access to deeper, richer zones. At least 2000 shafts on an area of ca. 150 km2 have been preserved, some of them up to 120 m deep. The miners extracted ca. 40 kg rock per man per day. The duration of each shift was defined by oil lamps that burned for approx. 10 hours. The ore-containing rock was removed via the shafts using ladders and rope winches, the holes to secure which are still visible in the shaft walls. The conditions underground must have been inhuman, since the galleries were very narrow, poorly venti-lated, and extremely hot. Not by chance were most of the miners slaves – as recommended by Xenophon in his treatise on revenues (Po-roi, IV, 22 ff.).Fig. 1 Rectangular ore-washing facility in Agrileza. © Heinz Schmitz outis.info/archaia_f/1611/laureion.htmlDiscovered for YouCQ3Cahn’s Quarterly 2/2017Around forty years later, when the Persians were preparing to launch yet another inva-sion of Greece, the statesman Themistocles ordered a renewal of the Athenian war fleet. This would have been unthinkable without the revenues from the Laurion Hills: Themis-tocles persuaded the Athenians to invest their share of the profits from the silver mines in the navy; hence the key role played by Ath-ens in the victory against the Persians in the naval Battle of Salamis in 480 B.C.The coins made their way westward as well, for instance as payment for grain imports from Sicily, where the shortage of silver ore had to be compensated by imports from abroad. The melting down or restriking of foreign coins was also a common practice. In the same year as the Battle of Salamis, Gelo, Tyrant of Syracuse, defeated the Carthagin-Sources:D. Morin-A. Photiades, Les Mines Antiques du Laurion. La puissance d´Athènes, BT Bibliotèque de travail, no. 1164 (Mouans-Sartoux Cedex 2005)C. Howgego, Geld in der antiken Welt (Darmstadt 2000)H. Kalcyk, Untersuchungen zum attischen Silberbergbau. Gebietsstruktur, Geschichte und Technik, Diss. Munich 1981 (Frankfurt a. M. 1982)Fig. 2: A TETRADRACHM, ATHENS. 17.19 g. Silver. Greek, 594–510 B.C. CHF 12,000Fig 3: A TETRADRACHM, SYRACUSE. 17.29 g. Silver. Western Greek, ca. 480-475 B.C. CHF 7,200ians who had been summoned to aid its ene-my cities at Himera. The second tetradrachm on sale at the Cahn Gallery (fig. 3) dates from this period. The quadriga on the obverse is a reference to the founding of Syracuse under the auspices of a priest of Zeus from Olym-pia. Later, athletes sent to Olympia performed especially well at horse-racing. The nymph Arethusa and four dolphins on the reverse are local references, specifically to a natural spring of the same name on the peninsula of Ortygia before Syracuse, while dolphins were reputed to escort ships and seafarers to safety. The motifs and the naming of the city, this time in full (ΣΥΡΑ-ΚΟΣΙΟ-Ν), once again serve as a badge of identity for the polis.But back to Laurion: When Sparta laid siege to Dekeleia in Attica in the Peloponnesian War of 413 B.C. the slave miners of Laurion This autumn, Gallery Cahn will participate in the Biennale Paris (11-17 September) for the first time since 1990. This fair, which was called the Biennale des Antiquaires before it was renamed in 2016, was once the glory of Paris. Held in the superb Grand Palais, it was the meeting place of “tout Paris”. The French aristocracy, art lovers and intellectuals gath-ered there and I vividly recollect seeing Jacques Chirac and his entourage viewing the exhibits. However, the Biennale underwent a deep cri-sis that was in many ways symptomatic of the situation in general in France. After protracted internal conflicts, the fair was fundamentally overhauled and last year it was re-launched as an annual event. The number of jewellery companies was reduced significantly, giving the fair a new focus on fine art. A more mod-ern design also reflects the new spirit of the Biennale which is now managed by a young GalleryThe Grand Palais, Paris, is the venue of the Biennale Paris which will be held from 11-17 September 2017. © Biennale“La Biennale Paris – en marche”By Jean-David Cahnand innovative team directed by Mathias Ary Jan. A newly established committee headed by the collector and philanthropist Christopher Forbes guarantees the quality of the exhibitors. Although last year’s Biennale was overshad-owed by the terrorist attacks in Paris, the fair was well visited. Especially the French pub-lic showed great interest. This year’s edition promises to be very exciting and will be host to a stunning special exhibition featuring the Collection Barbier-Mueller. I am delighted and honoured that Gallery Cahn was invited to ex-hibit at the Biennale Paris and I look forward to welcoming you there. switched sides in large numbers. The ensuing collapse of mining activities necessitated the mobilization of the state’s reserves. Compe-tition from the silver mines of Macedonia in the 4th century B.C. put an end to the last flowering of mining in the region and ush-ered in its demise. Around the beginning of the new millennium, Strabo, in his Geogra-phy (IX, 399), tells of the decline in mining and of the paltriness of the yields; but he also praises the miners, who were skilled and knowledgeable enough to extract silver even from old slag.CQ4Cahn’s Quarterly 2/2017Egypt’s former Antiquities Minister has said that retrieving Egyptian artefacts from abroad is not in Egypt’s interests, news sources from within the country report.Prof. Mamdouh al-Damaty, an Egyptologist who was Minister from 2014-2016 and be-lieves that displaying his country’s heritage in other nations promotes Egypt across the world, also pointed out that the majority of Egyptian artefacts abroad were legally export-ed before laws were introduced to ban exports.Vincent Geerling, chairman of the Interna-tional Association of Dealers in Ancient Art (IADAA), has welcomed Damaty’s speech, and is calling on the authorities in Egypt to take note. Geerling has also suggested that re-introducing licensed sales of minor artefacts might be a way of helping Egypt to finance the urgently needed protection of archaeological sites.“At IADAA, we have been campaigning for years on the issue of what has and hasn’t been legally exported, while watching with dismay as international bodies introduce inappropri-ate policy to deal with perceived wrongs that, for the most part, do not exist,” said Geer-ling. “So much of what Prof. Damaty is say-ing is exactly what we have been arguing for a long time now, but our views have been ignored or dismissed. Hopefully, now some-one as distinguished and knowledgeable as Egypt’s former Antiquities Minister has put forward the same arguments, we will all be listened to.”Those arguments acknowledge the fact that Egypt traded its artefacts legally over long pe-riods, including in the 20th century, when the Cairo Museum had its own saleroom (see CQ 4/2016, pp. 4-5). “In many other cases,” one news report quoted Damaty, “artefacts were presented by Egypt's kings as gifts to foreign dignitaries, rulers and officials, before the development of the current laws to protect antiquities and ban this habit.” Foreign archaeologi-cal missions were also allowed to take a percentage of the artefacts they discovered in Egypt, making it impossible for Egypt to recover these artefacts now, because they were legally exported, he said. In fact, Damaty went as far as stat-ing that the majority of Egyptian artefacts abroad had been legally exported.His speech came as Egypt’s on-going financial problems led to the suspension of 14 restoration projects and cutbacks in measures to protect archaeological sites, reports said. Significantly, before the coup the Antiquities Ministry paid for all the projects itself and was a net contributor to govern-ment coffers, whereas now it de-pends on central funding.“Until recently,” Geerling said, “Egyptian embassies challenged the sale of many artefacts, that The Temple of Dendur in The Metropolitan Museum, New York, was threatened by flooding from Lake Nasser and therefore removed. It was presented to the United States as a gift from the Egyptian government in recognition of the American contribution to the interna-tional campaign to save the ancient Nubian monuments.had been in collections for decades and more, at fairs or auction, without providing any ev-idence at all to show that they were stolen. The current Egyptian authorities’ view is that unless collectors, dealers and auction hous-es can demonstrate an unbroken provenance from when an object was excavated, it should be deemed illicit – guilty until proved inno-cent, if you like. That is legally flawed.”He argues that following the spirit of the for-mer Antiquities Minister’s speech, such a pol-icy needs to be replaced by something more positive. “Egypt had a legal trade in antiqui-ties up until around 40 years ago. Why not revive a properly licensed, self-sustaining le-gal trade in minor objects that are of no great importance to Egypt’s national heritage,” he asks, adding that “the trade can help Egypt create a revenue stream to finance the neces-sary protection of archaeological sites, as it is obliged to do under Article 5 of the UNESCO 1970 convention.”The Legal Trade with Egyptian ArtThe former Egyptian Antiquities Minister Mamdouh al-Damaty dispels clichés about the export of Egyptian artefactsA press statement by the International Association of Dealers in Ancient ArtThe Debate CQ5Cahn’s Quarterly 2/2017My ChoiceBy Jean-David CahnAN IMPRESSIVE STATUETTE OF AN IBIS. L. 46.5 cm. Wood, stucco, black colour. Egypt, Late Period, 26th-30th Dynasty. Formerly Collection Pierre and Claude Vérité, Paris, acquired between 1930 and 1960, ie. during a period of time in which Egyptian artefacts could be exported legally. Accompanied by a European passport and a French export license as required by Swiss law since 2005. Sold at TEFAF New York 2017This fragment comes from the upper end of a monumental, bell-shaped column base which was roughly 120 cm in diameter. It may have graced the throne room of an Achaemenid royal residence. Preserved are the resting surface for the column, part of an ancient A FRAGMENT WITH A ROYAL INSCRIPTION. H. 9.3 cm. Grey limestone. Achaemenid, 5th cent. B.C. CHF 36,000Persian inscription, and the decoration encir-cling the outside, which consists of pointed leaves with central ribs. The inscription can be translated as "... Great, King of Kings...".Why do I like this object so much? Even the material in its own right is fantastic: smooth, dense, and of a wonderfully deep, almost black colour. The masterly graphic design which focusses on the pure essentials also greatly impresses me. The frieze of pointed leaves is delicately sculpted with flowing transitions between the convex and concave surfaces. The ornamental inscription in a late cuneiform script is fragmentary like the ob-ject itself. It speaks mysteriously to us, like an oracle, about a king whose name is not given. The fragment does not give away its secret and thus excites the imagination. We wonder if maybe King Darius the Great is meant – one of the most important figures in Persian history who held a great fascination for the Greeks, too. It is enthralling to possess such an artwork – a personal piece which one can put on one’s desk and which unites aesthetic pleasure with historical import.A Royal InscriptionImprint PublisherJean-David Cahn Malzgasse 23 CH-4052 Basel +41 61 271 67 55 mail@cahn.ch www.cahn.chEditorsJean-David Cahn Yvonne YiuAuthorsJean-David CahnMartin FlasharUlrike HaaseIADAAGerburg LudwigPeter StewartJocelyn WolffYvonne YiuTranslationsBronwen SaundersYvonne YiuPhotosKatinka BockNiklaus BürginUlrike HaaseYvonne YiuDesign and LayoutMichael JoosYvonne YiuPrinterDruckerei Deiner www.druckerei-deiner.deSources:The Egyptian Independent: http://goo.gl/EbfgZjEgyptian Streets: http://goo.gl/HV8gK4For further information, contact Vincent Geerling: chairman@iadaa.orgor Ivan Macquisten: ivan@imacq.comCQ6Cahn’s Quarterly 2/2017The Classical Art Research Centre at Oxford University is perhaps best known for the Beaz- ley Archive, the physical and virtual archive of ancient Greek pottery at its heart. But our remit covers the whole of ancient Graeco-Ro-man art, broadly defined, and in recent years we have worked to stimulate and support new ideas and insights across the field. Free and open-minded debate is fundamental to this mission.Since 2014 CARC has held annual, two-day, international workshops enabled by the gen-erous support of Jean-David Cahn (who is an Oxford archaeology alumnus) and Tony Michaels. Featuring presentations from inter-national scholars addressing key topics in the study of Greek and Roman art, these work-shops are open to anyone to attend for free. The emphasis is on free-flowing debate and often friendly disagreement. As much time is devoted to discussion as to the presentations and the audiences are varied. We encourage students and non-academics in the audience to participate in the conversations.The first workshop Etruscan Art to Roman Art? A Reappraisal addressed an old theme which has become a hot topic. What, if any-thing, did later Roman art owe to the Etrus-cans, or did Roman art (as one eminent scholar has suggested) essentially begin with Peter Stewart is Director of the Classi-cal Art Research Centre, Associate Pro-fessor of Classical Art and Archaeology, and a Fellow of Wolfson College Oxford. He has worked widely on the subject of Classical art, especially Roman sculpture. the sack of Syracuse in 211 B.C.? In 2015 the workshop Replicas in Roman Art encouraged participants to try and understand the Ro-mans’ motivations for picking and choosing from the heritage of the Greek past. Finally, in 2016, The Maker's Share in Greek Art took us firmly back into the Classical Greek peri-od, seeking to cast new light on what indi-vidual artists contributed to the development of Greek art, and how we might try, cautious-ly, to recover them from the fragmentary ar-chaeological and textual record.In an era when academics are under pressure to publish and deliver research “outputs”, the workshops have adopted an unusual policy, which sometimes shocks participants but nearly always delights them too. We start each workshop without any plans to publish the proceedings; any ideas about publishing the results in a single volume should come spontaneously from the participants rather than being presented as a necessary duty. The result is that speakers have felt free to ex-plore ideas and, as we know from their feed-back from past events, the workshops have percolated gradually in their minds, stimulat-ing published research in a variety of venues further down the line.Nevertheless, we do want the events to reach the broadest possible audience, and with this in mind, the last workshop was filmed for a live webcast, which hugely expanded the au-dience and reached viewers across the world who were unable to attend in person. The re-cording of The Maker's Share in Greek Art is now publicly available as a University of Ox-ford podcast. In light of the CARC workshops' success, we have also adopted the format of the annual CARC workshops for a new initia-tive called Gandhara Connections: Cross-Cul-tural Links in Central Asian Art (kindly sup-ported by the Bagri Foundation and the Neil Kreitman Foundation). This new project aims to bring together expertise and pool knowl-edge about the Buddhist art of ancient Paki-stan and its connections to classical culture.The next CARC workshop on 28-29 Septem-ber 2017 is called Transmission: The Migra-tion of Iconography in Classical Art. It will examine the mysterious processes by which mythological imagery and other scenes in Greek and Roman art travelled across space and through time, jumping between artistic media. We hope that you will be able to join us in person or online! For free booking con-tact carc@classics.ox.ac.uk and for details and updates check our website: www.carc.ox.ac.ukJoin Us at the 2017 CARC WorkshopBy Peter StewartThe Debate Why I sponsor the CARC workshop What delights me most about the CARC workshop is that it makes the spirit of the ancient symposium come alive. The focus is on discussion and the exchange of ideas, something that is stimulated exactly because the proceedings are not published in writ-ten form. This has a liberating effect both on speakers and listeners. Top archaeologists from Europe and the USA are happy to participate despite their busy schedules because they are not burdened with the obligation to publish, and in the discussions critical and experimental thoughts can be voiced with greater ease. I am also pleased that many students make use of the opportunity offered by the workshop to meet international ex-perts in an unintimidating and friendly setting. I am very happy to make such an event possible together with its co-sponsor Tony Michaels, and encourage you to join us on 28-29 September, either in Oxford or live online. Jean-David CahnThe Greek hero Neoptolemos kills a Trojan captive. This scene was reproduced across Roman works of art from different periods and places.Katinka Bock, Winterchamäleon (Mantel). H. 150 cm. Coat, copper dust, salt. 2016.Galerie Jocelyn Wolff • 78, rue Julien-Lacroix • F-75020 Paris • +33 1 42 03 05 65 • galeriewolff.comMost of the artists whom I work with look at and analyse archaeological objects, tools, funerary objects and works of art (categories that often blend together in the eyes of the contemporary beholder). For them, the field of archaeology is equally a source of inspira-tion and a critical tool, and they use it to situ-ate themselves more consciously in their own time, suspended as they are in a vertiginous genealogy of forms. The world of archaeology is parallel to and consubstantial with that of art history, and the question of the artist, or of authorship, if you prefer, is constantly posed. When Jean-David Cahn invited me to work with Katinka Bock, Guillaume Leblon and Francisco Tropa on an exhibition in his gallery at Malzgasse in Basel, I immediate-ly accepted as it presented an opportunity to extend the exercise in relational contrasting between contemporary artworks and archae-ological objects that we first envisaged for the joint exhibition staged at the Brussels Independent in 2016. Minimalist, rough and refined at the same time, the gallery at Malz-gasse is a perfect showcase for an exhibition bringing together the inquiry of these three sculptors, who develop both conceptual dis-course (the process, the deconstruction of the image…) and expertly play with the choice and combination of materials.Jocelyn WolffArt visualizes what counts ultimately. Thus a work of art has the power to move us, even if thousands of years have passed since its creation, as is the case with ancient art, or it employs an artist’s own highly personal idiom, as is typical of contemporary art. As works that derive their formal beauty from their function and that were not created as works of art as such, prehistoric artefacts, in particular, rely on the gaze of the beholder to become art. But the viewer also plays a crucial role in relation to those works of con-temporary art that wish to be understood as the utterance or manifesto of one particular individual. The viewer must acquiesce to the absolute freedom of expression that is a de-fining characteristic of all contemporary art. Everything is allowed; there is no standard-izing based on social norms; yet despite the boundlessness of art, it can still be compre-hended. This capacity of the beholder to per-ceive art as art, indeed to generate art through the act of perceiving it as such, is a fascinating phenomenon! It is also what inspired me to embark on this project with Jocelyn Wolff. As a continuation of the conceptual work of our joint show at the Brussels Independent 2016, which incidentally aroused considerable in-terest among both visitors and media alike, it is premised on the notion of dialogue be-tween works of ancient art and the cut-ting-edge contemporary art displayed along-side them. What is new is that this time, we have ventured deep into the realms of prehis-tory, far beyond the well-trodden ground of historically documented civilizations and pe-riods. The oldest object shown here was made an astonishing 200,000 years ago! What hap-pens when such an artefact from the dawn of humanity is brought face to face with a work created just a few months ago? What does such an encounter tell us about what it means to be human – and about our true selves? Jocelyn Wolff and I selected works by Kat-inka Bock, Francisco Tropa, and Guillaume Leblon for this visual experiment. All three artists take a very haptic approach to their materials and in this respect are similar to the artists and craftsmen of Antiquity and prehistory. Unlike their ancient forebears, however, they also like to avail themselves of alienating effects, as does Francisco Tropa, for example, when he reproduces pebbles in bronze, or Katinka Bock, when she creates a sculpture out of a winter coat, copper dust, and salt. I am very much looking forward to working together with Jocelyn Wolff again and with the artists he represents, and am de-lighted to have this opportunity of sharing this exciting project with you.Jean-David CahnGallery Cahn • Malzgasse 23 • CH-4052 Basel • +41 61 271 67 55 • mail@cahn.ch • cahn.chNext >