Ancient Royal Antiquities Headline Timeline Auctions Sale

KUALA LUMPUR, June 3 (Bernama) -- TimeLine Auctions showcased museum-quality antiquities from Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece and the western Mediterranean at its Antiquities & Ancient Art Auction, featuring rare artefacts linked to ancient kings, religious figures and classical civilisations.

Among the headline lots is a hemispherical bronze bowl bearing the cuneiform name of Manishtushu, who ruled the Akkadian Empire around 2270 to 2255 B.C., according to TimeLine Auctions in a statement.

The auction also feature an agate eye-bead inscribed with the name of Kurigalzu II and a banded agate cylinder seal carrying a Sumerian prayer to the storm god Adad from the Kassite period.

The Egyptian collection is led by a 40-centimetre basalt figure of the Saite customs official Wahibre, depicted kneeling while supporting an offering basin. The sculpture’s components, separated in the 19th century and held in different collections, have been reunited for auction for the first time.

Other Egyptian highlights include a 70-centimetre hollow-cast bronze figure of Osiris dating to the 26th Dynasty and a painted wooden stele linking Amun at Luxor with Osiris at Abydos.

In the Greek section, a sixth-century B.C. black-figure pyxis depicting the wedding procession of an Athenian bride and a fifth-century B.C. red-figure column krater featuring Europa alongside a Dionysian scene are featured.

The sale will also feature the Gravona bronzes, a group of 10 artefacts recovered from a railway cutting in Corsica in the 1880s and later documented by archaeologist Robert Forrer in 1924.

Following the live auction, TimeLine will continue with an online-only sale from June 3, covering a broad range of ancient art categories. The programme will conclude with an Ancient Coins auction on June 9 and 10 featuring weights, tokens, medals and books.

The auction is scheduled to begin at 1pm British Summer Time, with bidding available through absentee bids, telephone participation and online platforms. Worldwide shipping will be offered, with payments accepted in British pounds sterling.

-- BERNAMA