New this year is the UK dealer ArtAncient, which is putting together an intriguing display for its inaugural visit to the Brussels fair.
Connections features 17 items which are paired with 17 coins to illustrate their historic and symbolic links.
They include a 17kg iron meteorite formed 4.6bn years ago displayed with a silver denarius from the Antioch mint of 218AD under the Roman Emperor Elagabalus, depicting a four-horse chariot towing the stone of Emesa. The black metallic stone, almost certainly a meteorite, was the object of veneration at the Temple of Emesa in the Near East.
It became famous when Elagabalus had it brought it to Rome in an elaborate chariot procession, emphasising that man’s fascination with these otherworldly objects dates back centuries. The two items are on sale priced at £60,000.
Also on display is the finely modelled piece of ancient Greek armour, a cuirass from the 4th century BC.
It is displayed alongside a Greek silver tetradrachm, minted in Paeonia, c.330BC, featuring a scene in which Ariston, Alexander’s cavalry general, wearing similar armour, spears the Persian commander Satropates in a skirmish before the Battle of Gaugamela of 331BC. Cuirass and coin are priced at £400,000.
