Rare and Valuable ''Feuardent Cameo'' Resurfaces; Phoenix Ancient Art Discovers That Ancient Roman Cameo is a 'Last of Its Kind' Piece from Long-Held Private French Collection.

NEW YORK -- The field of ancient art and antiquities is often filled with excitement and mystery. Take for example, the spellbinding story of the "Feuardent Cameo," one of the most prominent, beautiful and valuable examples of Roman jewelry known today, which was recently sold to a private collector by the Geneva Gallery of Phoenix Ancient Art. It was only after purchasing this exquisite piece, which is estimated to be nearly 2,000 years old, that Phoenix Ancient Art discovered that it was in fact a "last of its kind" from a legendary private collection.

"There is a lot of detective work involved in the antiquities field," says Ali Aboutaam, president of Phoenix Ancient Art, one of the world's foremost ancient antiquities dealers, which has galleries in Geneva, Switzerland and New York City. "You must always do extensive research to make sure a piece is authentic and legitimate, but sometimes you make a truly exciting find, like the Feuardent Cameo."

Phoenix Ancient Art purchased the cameo when it surfaced in the market in early 2004. As always, the gallery initiated a rigorous research process to ensure that it held up to their standards, was authentic and in good condition, and had legitimate provenance and proper importation documents. To insure that the piece wasn't stolen or looted, the gallery checked it against the Art Loss Registry. Phoenix Ancient Art's investigations are so thorough, that it offers clients a full guarantee should a legitimate question arise about a piece.

It was during this research that Phoenix Ancient Art discovered that the piece had been published and identified in Dr. Wolf-Rudinger Megow's authoritative reference work Cameos from Augustus until Alexander Severus. Dr. Megow is considered by scholars to be the world's foremost authority on ancient Roman Imperial cameos. With this finding, the gallery realized without a doubt that it now possessed the renowned "Feuardent Cameo," which had crowned the ancient jewelry collection of the aristocratic French Feuardent family for more than four generations.

According to Hicham Aboutaam, co-founder of Phoenix Ancient Art, "The fact that Feuardent's cameo was published in Megow's work is not only proof of its importance and authenticity, but also clear evidence that there are still numerous world class objects of ancient art that have been in private collections for decades and even centuries without having been widely published. The market still holds great potential for remarkable and beautiful surprises."

The cameo is a stunning piece carved in exquisite detail from a single piece of sardonyx. It is in pristine condition and features busts of a man and a woman. The facial characteristics of the male are rendered in such detail that he is easily identifiable as the Roman emperor Caligula. The female appears to be his grandmother, Antonia the Younger, with whom Caligula was said to have had a very close relationship. This would firmly date the cameo to within Caligula's reign, between 37 and 41 A.D.

In ancient Rome, wealthy citizens collected carved gems and cameos, which were highly prized due to the skill required to create them and were considered among the most popular luxury goods. In the 18th and 19th centuries, it became very fashionable in Europe to collect ancient cameos, as well as reproductions. Consequently, both ancient and modern pieces found homes in collections across Europe. Dr. Megow spent his career painstakingly studying and authenticating numerous cameos from around the globe, including pieces that are now on display at the British Museum, the Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, as well as pieces in private collections.

"We are always extremely diligent in checking a piece's authenticity," Ali Aboutaam says, "and in this case we were especially careful since so many reproductions were made in the 18th and 19th centuries. One can safely argue that Megow would only publish authentic pieces in his exhaustive work, and not reproductions."

The Feuardent cameo is arguably "the last of its kind," meaning that it is the only major cameo featured in Megow's reference work on the subject to remain in private hands.

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