Christie's is doing the thing again. I'll live-tweet as I go through the listings for their upcoming London antiquities sale... https://www.christies.com/SaleLanding/index.aspx?intsaleid=28619&lid=1&saletitle=

"From a Princely Collection" oooooooh fancy! Too bad that whole "circa 1970s" provenance doesn't give me a whole lot of confidence.

If only she could speak and tell us the story of what's going on with the whole "reputedly" thing in her provenance history...

Received as a gift from who now?

A Pitt-Rivers buying from a Cesnola? Imperialist looting really does run in the family!

Who doesn't want to own an ancient Cypriot Fembot?

Satyr/seller: "Pretty please, can't I have a pre-1970 provenance? 1971 is so close!"

Maenad/me: "Nope!"

Don't you hate the thing when you're carrying your aging father from the burning ruins of a conquered city and he insists on wearing his heaviest helmet? Oh, hey, also, no good provenance.

"Come on dude - I hear Christie's is totally down with selling us even though our provenace is just 'acquired in the late 1980s-1990s'!"

"Hey boys, you're not the only ones acquired in the late 1980s-1990s..."

This expression! It's like he knows he's a bad boar for having such little provenance.

"I'm just a man, kneeling here naked on a sea monster, looking for someone willing to buy an antiquity with the provenance 'Swiss private collection, acquired in the 1970s'."

"I guess the former owner could have bought this dopey-looking head during the first 60 years of his life, so why don't I give it the benefit of the doubt... oh wait, the very next lot is from his collection, purchased in 1972."

Ganymede is pretty open about his charms, unlike the auction house, coyly concealing its only definite date (1972) in the literature section.

Christie's is advertising this Hellenistic gilt silver vessel, without any proof of where it was before 1990, by comparing it to the set of Hellenistic gilt silver vessels the Metropolitan Museum repatriated to Sicily since they were so obviously looted.
https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/06/arts/design/06silver.html

Am I the weirdo here? Am I the only one who thinks it's not a great idea to pay $40,000 for a fugly looted lion?
https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=6296783&lid=1&From=salesummery

"So you're cool with nobody knowing where I was before 1989?" ~ disappointed face~

So '80s.

I'm usually skeptical of listings that seem to claim that antiquities sold themselves at auction, but the way she's twisting, I'll give it to her.

Good bum, bad provenance.

You want me to pay $20,000 for an unprovenanced, possibly ancient fragment that I can't locate on a body even when you tell me where I'm supposed to be looking? oooooookay.

Christie's is so proud that this antiquity was discussed in the eminent scholarly work "Digging and Dealing in Eighteenth-Century Rome"... which really should've been titled "Looting, Faking, and Smuggling in 18th century Rome."

Honey, stop acting like this is a mug shot. It's not your fault you don't have any provenance from before 1985.

Christie's: "Buy this Venus from the collection of Thomas Herbert, 8th Earl of Pembroke!"

Me: "The one notorious for buying fake antiquities? Whose collection was described as mostly 'mere defaced rubbish' or 'mutilated so much as to be unworthy of notice'?"

If you want to read more about the Earl of Pembroke, whose taste and antiquities was so notoriously bad that Isaac Newton dragged him for it, find out more in my book! https://www.amazon.com/Possession-Curious-History-Collectors-Antiquity/dp/0300208529

OK, OK, it is cute to look at a horse rolling its eyes. But – no provenance.

No clue where he was before the 80s, but wherever it was, it was roooooough.

People named Monty and Barbie Passes bought this at a shop called Objects, all of which is charming enough to make me forgive the lack of pre-1970 provenance... just kidding!

At least this is marginally more attractive than the many other supposedly Roman snake rings available for sale online, also lacking good provenance?

Summing up: of the 77 antiquities in this sale, 31 have no pre-1970 provenance. And that's a generous accounting – many of the remaining antiquities have vague provenances that could be before or after 1970.

Should you buy antiquities without knowing for sure where they came from? For the answer to that question, let me direct you to the collecting guide on ancient marbles, authored by Christie's expert, that accompanies the action:
https://www.christies.com/Features/Ancient-Marbles-Collecting-Guide-7493-1.aspx

"A savvy collector will always ask about provenance, and responsible... auction houses will endeavour to provide as much information as they can....If you feel there are questions unanswered, or you don’t feel 100 per cent happy with the information you’ve been given, walk away."