MEDIA RELEASE COURTESY OF: SLADMORE GALLERY

Ever since people first drew on the walls of caves, they have had the desire to depict the creatures around them.

The Sladmore Gallery, 57 Jermyn Street, St James’s, London, is renowned for exhibiting animal sculpture from the last 200 years, and has now invited Rupert Wace Ancient Art to introduce collectors to a veritable menagerie from the ancient world, spanning a period of some 2,400 years. A Collector’s Menagerie: Animal Sculpture from the Ancient World will be on view from Wednesday 12 to Friday 28 May 2010. Around 70 important and appealing pieces will be offered for prices ranging from £1,000 to over £150,000.

The earliest piece in the exhibition – a stone head of a goat – dates from the 3rd millennium BC and comes from a larger figure from Bactria, the ancient name of an area between the Hindu Kush and the Oxus river in present-day north Afghanistan. The most recent is a Byzantine bronze finial in the form of a dove dating from around the 5th century AD, possibly an early Christian piece representing Noah’s Dove, a symbol of resurrection.

Visitors to the exhibition will be fascinated by the fine craftsmanship of this amazing collection of creatures great and small, which still thrill and amuse today.

Rupert Wace has been dealing in antiquities for over 30 years, opening his own business in 1988. He has handled the private sales of antiquities from the British Rail Pension Fund and his clients include major international collectors as well as some of the world’s great museums such as the British Museum and the Ashmolean Museum in the UK; the Musée du Louvre, Paris; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Antikenmuseum, Basel, and the Staatliche Museum in Munich. Rupert Wace is Vice Chairman of the Antiquities Dealers Association in the UK and also of the International Association of Dealers in Ancient Art, both of which rigorously uphold the ethics of dealing in ancient art and whose members follow a strict code of ethics concerning the authenticity and provenance of the objects they sell.

Exhibition: A Collector’s Menagerie: Animal Sculpture from the Ancient World
Exhibition dates: 12 to 28 May 2010
Location: Sladmore Gallery, 57 Jermyn Street, St James’s, London, SW1Y 6LX
Information: www.rupertwace.co.uk tel. +44 (0)20 7495 1623
Opening hours: Monday to Friday 10am to 6pm; Saturday 11am to 5pm
Price range: £1,000 to over £150,000