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Looks like it's time to do another thread on what passes for genuine in online antiquities auctions again. This claimedly Greek ram with "pronounced testicles," one of the lots currently on offer from TimeLine Auctions, has the extreme eyeroll I'm feeling https://timelineauctions.com/lot/ram-statute/160807/
Currently 3,973 lots in this one auction, which by itself is horrifying and/or ridiculous, since that's a lot of either fakes or looted antiquities for sale: https://timelineauctions.com/auction/122
The goofy face brigade
Antiquities are such miracles! Perfectly preserved for millennia so that we can marvel at... wait, no, actually, this is fake and those fingers are going to haunt my dreams.
When you're selling fake cylinder seals, maybe don't put two obviously made by the same forger right next to one another in your sales listings? Just a thought.
Hellenistic earrings rarely survive in pairs or with intact loops, but that's no problem for this auction house!
Also are these ones... twerking? In reverse?
Awwwwww, cuuuuute, someone's very first forgery!
Current bid on this one is £55, which is GENEROUS.
This "Roman" cameo is described as "cut in very high relief," which, yes, I should say so.
So... I can just have at a lump of clay with a pointy stick and call it an "Western Asiatic Early Dynastic Sexagesimal Counting Tablet, 3000-2500 BC"? Cool, cool, good to know.
You say "Roman Bust of Goddess and Deceased," I say "Portrait of a Self-Quarantining Mother after a Day of Homeschooling."
