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Terracottas in the News

Seizure: An Etruscan Hare Alabastron, circa 580-560 B.C.E. Reprinted from ARCA Blog, Friday, June 29, 2018.

Abstract

An ancient Etruscan terracotta vessel in the shape of a reclined rabbit.  Listed as a Hare Aryballos (sic), circa 580-560 B.C.E., the unguentarium was seized by New York authorities at Fortuna Fine Arts Ltd. Reprinted from the ARCA Blog, Friday, June 29, 2018.

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1At the request of the Manhattan district attorney's office, the Hon. Ellen N. Biben, Administrative Judge of New York County Supreme Court, issued a seizure warrant for an ancient Etruscan terracotta vessel, in the shape of a reclined rabbit. Listed as a Hare Aryballos (sic), circa 580-560 B.C.E., the unguentarium was seized by New York authorities at Fortuna Fine Arts Ltd., a firm which specializes in antiquities and numismatics, located at 3 East 69th Street in New York City. 

2Earlier, on 30 June 2015, this same aryballos sold for £950 in London via Rome-based Bertolami Fine Arts through ACR Auctions, an online auction firm used by the Italian auction house.

Fig. 1. An Etruscan Hare Alabastron, circa 580-560 B.C.E., seized by New York authorities.

Photo: ARCA Blog, Friday, June 29, 2018.

3The New York gallery where the seizure warrant was executed is managed by Selim Dere, Founder and Erdal Dere (son of Aysel Dere and Selim Dere), President of Fortuna Fine Arts. There is no information available at this time as to whether or not Mr. Dere had valid import and export documentation.

4Prior to moving to New York, Selim Dere was reportedly arrested by Turkish police, along with cousin Aziz Dere and art dealer Faraç Üzülmez for their roles in the smuggling a marble sarcophagus depicting the twelve labours of Heracles from Perge, Turkey. Purportedly sliced into pieces for transport, part of this sarcophogus was repatriated by the John Paul Getty Museum to Turkey in 1983 while others were located in Kessel, West Germany.Later, in 1993, acting on an international letters rogatory from the Turkish Government, FBI agents from the New York field office went to the Fortuna Fine Arts gallery, then located on Madison Avenue, and seized a marble statue of a young man and fragment of garland taken from Aphrodisias, an ancient Greek Hellenistic city in the historic Caria cultural region of western Anatolia, Turkey.

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List of illustrations

Credits Photo: ARCA Blog, Friday, June 29, 2018.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/acost/docannexe/image/1841/img-1.jpg
File image/jpeg, 74k
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References

Electronic reference

Seizure: An Etruscan Hare Alabastron, circa 580-560 B.C.E. Reprinted from ARCA Blog, Friday, June 29, 2018.Les Carnets de l’ACoSt [Online], 19 | 2019, Online since 11 June 2019, connection on 24 March 2023. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/acost/1841; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/acost.1841

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Creative Commons - Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International - CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

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