Tutankhamun Grasshopper Vessel made from ivory and wood in the form of a grasshopper, late 18th Dynasty, c. 1350–1349 BC, Egypt. Photo: courtesy and © Apollo Auctions

Apollo Auctions sells the enigmatic Tutankhamun Grasshopper Vessel for $456K, stirring the ethical maelstrom surrounding its provenance and legacy.

BY KAZEEM ADELEKE, ARTCENTRON

LONDON– A remarkably ornate cicada-shaped vessel, crafted from both ivory and timber, has sold for $456,824.00 (£340,000) at the Apollo Art Auctions. Despite the intense controversy surrounding the sale, the auction house was unperturbed and sold the piece. Reputedly originating from the epoch of Tutankhamun, this delicate object, likely a kohl or perfume container, ignited a global debate. Prominent Egyptian antiquarians voice stern apprehensions. They suggest that Howard Carter may have surreptitiously appropriated the Tutankhamun Grasshopper Vessel.

Carter was the British excavator famed for unearthing the boy king’s tomb. He meticulously indexed thousands of sepulchral relics. Suspicion has long surrounded Carter for clandestinely enriching his private assemblage. This Tutankhamun Grasshopper Vessel now stands at the center of an ethical and historical maelstrom. Its auction highlights enduring questions about provenance and cultural heritage.

The Tutankhamun Grasshopper Vessel Valuation

Apollo Art Auctions dubbed the item the “Guennol Grasshopper.” It fetched $456,824.00 (£340,000). This Tutankhamun Grasshopper Vessel once exchanged hands for a lofty $1.2 million. It arrives replete with its original transactional receipt. Its high valuation reflects its artistic merit and historical intrigue.

Design and Artistic Craftsmanship 

The insect’s design is more artful than naturalistic. This Tutankhamun Grasshopper Vessel features a segmented carapace. Checkered ivory upper wings display intricate geometrical flourishes. Wooden lower appendages and obsidian-hued ocular inlays complete its form. The wings are spread to pivot outward. This action unveils a diminutive, oval-shaped cavity within, according to promotional materials. Measuring a mere 3.5 inches, its preservation suggests millennia encased in hermetic slumber. Only time and tender age disturbed it. A few wing fractures are the lone scars it bears. Those very wings were crafted with a lattice-like design and meant to unfurl. This intricate craftsmanship speaks to the artistry of its original era.

Tutankhamun Grasshopper Vessel Provenance  

The provenance trail of the Tutankhamun Grasshopper Vessel is embroidered with prestige. It claims the vessel once resided among elite collectors of the 20th century. These include the renowned New Yorker Joseph Brummer and the legendary Guennol Collection. In 2007, it transferred to the Merrin Gallery, still bearing its original invoice.

The Guennol trove belonged to Alastair Bradley Martin. He was a venerated trustee of the Brooklyn Museum. His spouse was Edith. Famously, in 2007, the collection’s limestone Lioness statuette (dated circa 3000–2800 B.C.) commanded $57.1 million at Sotheby’s. This sale shattered records far beyond its $18 million estimate.

The enigmatic Tutankhamun Grasshopper Vessel was on display at the Brooklyn Museum from 1948 until 2002. It also briefly graced the halls of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1969. According to Apollo magazine, Carter allegedly passed it covertly to Maurice Nahman. Nahman was an antiquities dealer in Egypt. He sold it to Joseph Brummer in 1936. From Brummer’s 1948 estate sale, it passed into the hands of the elite collector Alastair Bradley Martin. Merrin Gallery secured it in 2007. According to available information,  the current consignors are the heirs of Sheikh Saud al-Thani.

The Repatriation Debate 

Before the sale, Apollo Art Auctions communicated with The New York Times. They asserted “no documented evidence” exists of the object’s extraction from Tutankhamun’s crypt. The firm clarified, “This artifact does not manifest on any formal excavation manifest.”

However, Christian Loeben, an erudite Egyptologist and curator at the Museum August Kestner in Hanover, diverges. He stated with confident gravitas that the Tutankhamun Grasshopper Vessel likely hailed from the sealed sanctum of the pharaoh’s tomb. Its unmarred condition and stylistic congruence with that precise era evidence this. Loeben, having penned works on Carter’s archaeological legacy, now advocates unequivocally for the Tutankhamun Grasshopper Vessel’s repatriation. “This is a matter of ethical rectitude,” he insisted.

The auction house emphasized that the Tutankhamun Grasshopper Vessel has been vetted against the Art Loss Register’s archives. It carries an Art Loss Letter. This is effectively a certificate of ethical clearance from the London-based watchdog. Yet, the Tutankhamun Grasshopper Vessel resides in an ethical no-man’s-land. James Ratcliffe, the Art Loss Register’s legal chief, articulated this. Despite expert qualms, Egypt has never officially listed it as purloined. It has also not petitioned for its repatriation.

Scholarly Endorsements and Disclosures

Scholarly voices have traced the lineage of the Tutankhamun Grasshopper Vessel to the boy king’s sepulcher for decades. Former Met director Thomas Hoving first floated the theory in his 1978 book, Tutankhamun: The Untold Story. Following Carter’s demise, his niece stumbled upon artifacts inscribed with the young pharaoh’s moniker among his personal effects. Some were quietly restored to Egypt. In 2010, the Met relinquished 19 minuscule items after “irrefutable evidence” tethered them to the tomb. The linkage to King Tut’s tomb gained early public attention thanks to Hoving in 1978. Loeben recently reinforced this connection. Another academic, Christina Riggs of Durham University, criticized Apollo Auctions for failing to notify Egyptian authorities.

The Auctioneer’s Defense 

The auctioneer repudiates allegations of looting. “Though contemporaneous with Tutankhamun, the Tutankhamun Grasshopper Vessel lacks any definitive provenance to his tomb,” the house asserted. “Mentions in later academia are conjectural. Moreover, it exited Egypt in the 1930s, decades before global legal frameworks like the 1970 UNESCO Convention or Egypt’s 1983 Antiquities Law.”

Apollo claims to have completed exhaustive provenance checks. They emphasize the item’s absence from stolen art registries. They also state that Egypt has never demanded its return. The Art Loss Register’s certificate lends procedural validation, though not absolute exoneration. “In accordance with U.K. legal standards, restitution necessitates evidence of illicit provenance, unlawful export, and prompt legal motion—none of which have materialized in the object’s eight-decade public chronicle,” the house said. “We are offering this relic due to its profound historical and cultural resonance. We trust it will find sanctuary within a public institution, where its story can be safeguarded and shared.”

Howard Carter’s Legacy 

Howard Carter’s sensational breach of Tutankhamun’s untouched necropolis in 1922 has long bewitched the global imagination. Funded by the Earl of Carnarvon, Carter was promised a bounteous share of any spoils. This was standard for tombs pre-ravaged by plunderers, as per contemporary Egyptian regulation.

However, Tutankhamun’s chamber lay inviolate for over 30 centuries. Most of its 5,398 marvels have since remained in Egyptian custody. They will be stars in the nascent $1 billion Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Still, whispers linger: Carter may have clandestinely absconded with relics, never conceding the act aloud. The so-called Guennol Grasshopper, suspected to be among his extralegal harvest, resurfaces now via Apollo Art Auctions. According to Apollo magazine, both Sotheby’s and Christie’s sidestepped the piece due to its labyrinthine backstory. Nonetheless, the Tutankhamun Cicada Vessel was sold.

The Future of the Tutankhamun Grasshopper Vessel

The dispersal of this insectile cosmetic vessel is steeped in antiquity and ensnared in controversy. It spotlights the enduring moral impasse in heritage markets. The relic, offered by Apollo Art Auctions (an outfit unaffiliated with the magazine of the same name), maintains that no substantiated theft occurred. In an era where curators and collectors alike increasingly interrogate the origins of cultural artifacts, the sale of this enigmatic Tutankhamun Grasshopper Vessel has cemented its place in ongoing debates about cultural heritage. Its journey continues to pose critical questions for the art world.