I have not created any entries on this blog since August 2020, and with good reason. Nearly two years ago, I quietly terminated my antiquities business, Clio Ancient Art, bringing to an end twelve satisfying and enjoyable years of involvement in the trade. I’ve since permanently shut down Clio’s pages on various online selling platforms.… Read More Archiving This Blog
At the time of this writing the self-styled Caliphate created by Islamic State six years ago in Syria and Iraq has been reduced to little more than a square mile of bombed out rubble. During IS’ heyday much was made in the western press of a supposed systematic trade in antiquities looted by IS operatives… Read More As the IS “Caliphate” disappears, time to revisit larger issues of the illicit antiquities trade
In the aftermath of Hurricane Florence, we are still here in Wilmington, NC, more or less in one piece. Many others in Southeastern North Carolina and beyond were not as fortunate. Below are a couple of images from the aftermath of the storm. Our inventory is intact but please note that many local post… Read More Hurricane Florence Update
I have a new Blog on WordPress dealing with my own art and the convergence of my work with my “day job” as owner of Clio Ancient Art and Antiquities, which you all know from this Blog here on WordPress. The first few articles have been published. Here’s the link – https://pastpresentartsandcrafts.wordpress.com/
It’s been some time since Clio Ancient Art offered any antiquities from the Neolithic but the “Stone Age,” as well as the related subject areas of early technologies and experimental archaeology, are certainly of great interest to many of our followers. That’s why I’m recommending a video channel on YouTube called “Beyond2000BC.” The series is… Read More A recommended video channel on early technologies and cultures
In January of this year I wrote a brief article for this Blog dealing with my own experiences as both a dealer in ancient Mediterranean art and an artist myself, and the influence one has upon the other. The article was inspired by an exhibition that was a collaboration between the British Museum and Turner… Read More A Confluence of Art, Ancient and Modern
Our featured object this week hearkens back to a time when the Middle East was quite different demographically than it is today. For more than 400 years, large parts of the Near and Middle East were governed by the expansionist Ottoman Empire. Under the Empire’s authoritarian rule, the many ethnic and religious minorities of the… Read More This Week’s Featured Object: Echoes of a Very Different Middle East – Clothing from Iraqi Kurdistan
As an artist myself (yes, I have come to accept, to my own astonishment, that in addition to being an antiquities dealer / antiquarian / art historian, I am, at last, an artist) I often find myself influenced, even if sometimes subliminally, by the ancient and medieval art and artifacts I handle every day (see… Read More A breakthrough moment in the modern interpretation of antiquities
This week’s featured object does not come from the Mediterranean, Classical or Near Eastern worlds but from Southeast Asia. It represents an important phase in Asian history in which China retreated from the world stage, leaving smaller kingdoms to fill the resulting gap in international trade. In a Blog article earlier this month (https://clioantiquities.wordpress.com/2016/10/01/distant-connections-contact-and-object-exchange-between-mediterranean-and-far-east-asian-civilizations-in-the-first-few-centuries-ce/) we… Read More This Week’s Featured Object: 15th Century Thai Glazed Pottery Jar
This large and impressive textile, our Object of the Week, is a fragment from a Coptic Egyptian garment and features complex geometric and foliate designs. Thanks to exceptionally dry conditions, many types of artifacts made from perishable materials that would not survive elsewhere are common finds on Egyptian archaeological sites. Between the late 18th and… Read More This Week’s Featured Object: A Framed Coptic Egyptian Textile 5th – 7th Century AD
Clio Ancient Art & Antiquities 
You must be logged in to post a comment.