
Anna Marston
Associate Specialist
Sold for £2,560 inc. premium
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Provenance:
Athos Moretti (1907-1993) collection, Tessin, 1960s-1980s.
Anonymous sale; Cahn Auktionen AG, Basel, 9 November 2013, lot 135.
Private collection, Switzerland, acquired from the above sale.
Similar bulls have been discovered in Boeotia in the sanctuary of the Kabeiroi, and are now in the Athens National Museum (see B. Schmalz, Metallfiguren aus dem Kabirenheiligtum bei Theben, Berlin, 1980, p. 56, cat. no. 197, pp. 81ff., cat. no. 333, p. 90, cat. 361) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, acc. no. 20.210. The Kabirion of Thebes was one of the most important mystery cult centres of the little-known divine Kabeiroi. Bronze bulls such as this were the most common type of dedication to be made there. Another similar bull was found at the Sanctuary of Zeus in Nemea, and is now in the Spurlock Museum at the University of Illinois (acc. no. 1929.01.0003).