Studio: international art (14.1898)

Tanagra Terra-cottas

art had again and again been
offered, and where those who
sell and those who buy are
thoroughly conversant with
genuine and spurious pieces
and with market values, it
should be in London. And
yet, on the occasion in ques-
tion, not only did the auctioneer
announce that never before had
such a collection of terra-cottas
come up for disposal by the
firm, and that he could form
no estimate as to their value,
but it was evident that of the
large gathering at the sale not a
dozen had any certainty as to
their origin, their genuineness,
or their market value. As it
happened, the best specimen
was acquired for a third of the
sum which an Italian bronze
which preceded it was knocked
down for, and the main portion
of the collection did not indivi-
dually reach the price paid for
Rhodian plates in the same sale.

NO. I.—CONVERSATION AT THE SARCOPHAGUS HERMIONE

(Salting Collection')

NO. 2.—THE RAPE OF EUROPA ERETRIA

(Ionides Collection)

The incident throws a
curious light upon the value
of Museums as schools of
instruction in art—a value
which had already received
apt illustration in France
in the case of this very
same class of objects : for
at the Paris Exhibition of
1878 one of the sections
contained a loan collection
of these statuettes, and
French dilettanti at once
lost their heads over the
novel and delightful repre-
sentations of Greek beauty
every one of them being
in ignorance that there had
existed for several years
amongst the treasures of
the Louvre a far more
complete assemblage of
them.

It is not otherwise over
here. In the Terra-cotta
Room at the British

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