The "Guennol Lioness" is a Mesopotamian artwork expected to garner between $14 million and $18 million (US) at auction. Why is this miniature sculpture so significant?

A small ancient Near Eastern sculpture of a Standing Lioness Demon (ca. 3000-2800 B.C.) will soon be offered for purchase at Sotheby's New York, one object in its upcoming Important Egyptian, Classical & Western Asiatic Antiquities sale. Also known as the Guennol Lioness, it's one of the last stone Mesopotamian works still privately owned.

Although it has been researched and exhibited for nearly six decades, a paucity of concrete information about the mysterious piece exists. Yet it's expected to fetch between $14 million and $18 million (US) from the highest bidder on December 5, 2007. The sale's proceeds will go to the owner's charitable trust. What makes the Guennol Lioness, a miniature Mesopotamian masterpiece of superb craftsmanship, so vastly important and valuable?

The Guennol Collection

Beginning in the late 1940s, New Yorkers Alastair Bradley Martin and his wife, Edith Park Martin, began fervently purchasing ancient, African, Asian and American Folk art. The Guennol Collection takes its name from their former Glen Head, NY estate. Guennol (pronounced GWEN-ol) is Welsh for Martin. The couple acquired artworks for their aesthetic value, not for that on the international market. Mr. Martin, grandson of the late steel magnate Henry Phipps, became a Brooklyn Museum trustee in 1948 and served a term as its President. His family's celebrated collection was the subject of two special exhibitions at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (1969) and the Brooklyn Museum (2000).

Provenance of the Guennol Lioness

Scholarly studies strongly indicate that the white magnesite or crystalline limestone Guennol Lioness was carved in Elam, a region of ancient Mesopotamia situated in modern-day southwestern Iran. At 8.8 cm (3 1/2 in.) high, the precious sculpture was carved by an artisan from the same civilization that witnessed the birth of writing, currency, the wheel and organized cities. The piece's geographical origin is corroborated stylistically by cylinder seals from the same area; their impressions include a similar leonine beast.

The Martins purchased the Guennol Lioness in 1948 from Joseph Brummer. The New York art dealer had come to possess the figure in 1931 and reported that it was discovered at a site near Baghdad. The sculpture was subsequently on view at the Brooklyn Museum for nearly 60 years. It was recently loaned to The Metropolitan Museum of Art for its landmark exhibition Art of the First Cities: The Third Millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus (May 8-August 17, 2003), a showstopper in the exposition's first gallery.

Significance of the Sculpture

Many ancient Near Eastern deities were visually represented with merged human and animal features. Such images evoked the Mesopotamians' belief in attaining power over the physical world by combining the superior physical attributes of various species. The striding upright Guennol Lioness, some 5,000 years old, is a diminutive feline figure with human posture. The nearby Sumerians possibly borrowed this powerful artistic hybrid from the Proto-Elamites. Similar composite likenesses can be seen in the top and bottom registers of the trapezoidal front panel from the famous Great Lyre from the "King's Grave" (ca. 2650-2550 B.C.), a musical string instrument from a burial site at Ur in present-day Iraq. The object was discovered by British archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley early in the 20th century.

The exquisitely carved Standing Lioness Demon is small in scale yet grand in power. The sculpture emanates strength and continues to evoke awe. This beautiful work of antiquity is conjectured to have been owned by a Mesopotamian of important social status, possibly a ruler. But its exact function still eludes scholars. The Guennol Lioness was perhaps a fierce protective talisman meant to ward off evil. Its engaged clenched claws compressing its massive upper torso suggest a protective aspect of the composition.

The head of the Guennol Lioness, with its grimacing glance, is turned sharply to the left, resting upon well-developed musculature and massive shoulders. The ferocious feline was probably painted colorfully in ancient times. The determined demon's tail snakes up the piece's spine from its posterior, embracing its slender waistline's left side. The sculpture's missing lower hind legs are thought to have been made of gold or silver. Four drilled holes behind the limestone object allowed for it to have been strung and suspended around one's neck, permitting it to function as a potent supernatural charm.

Update

On December 5, 2007 at Sotheby's NY, the Guennol Lioness was purchased for $57,161,000 by an anonymous English bidder. The transaction set a world record for any antiquity and sculpture sold by an auction house.

Sources:

• Aruz, Joan (ed.), et al. Art of the First Cities: The Third Millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus (exh. cat.). New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2003, 42-44, 105-107.
• Porada, Edith. “A Leonine Figure of the Protoliterate Period of Mesopotamia,” Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 70, No. 4. (Oct.-Dec. 1950), 223-226.
• Zettler, Richard L. and Lee Horne (eds.). Treasures from the Royal Tombs of Ur (exh. cat.). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum, 1998, 53-57.