Items ranging from Narwhal tusks to furniture were displayed by dealers such as Hyland Granby Antiques, Wienerroither & Kohlbacher and Phoenix Ancient Art with brothers Hicham Aboutaam and Ali Aboutaam.

Here is a  short video posted by the latter, showcasing some of their most intricate and unique artifacts from the New York event.

The artifacts will be on display until January 21^st of next year, on loan from the Museo Archeologico Regionale of Aidone. They include vases, oil lamps, terracotta deity figurines, bone clothes and hair pins, and a lead curse tablet.

Demeter and Persephone were worshipped as goddesses of agricultural fertility in ancient Sicily. Myth holds that Persephone was kidnapped by Hades, thus creating the change of seasons. In Roman history, Demeter is known as Ceres, and Roman images are featured in the exhibit as well, to showcase the divinities in both cultures.

“We are thrilled to have these unique objects from Morgantina- an excavation where generations of American archeologists were trained-on view for the first time in the United States at the Getty Museum,” said senior curator of antiquities Claire Lyons. “These loans represent the great benefits of collaboration, and help to share and preserve Sicily’s rich cultural heritage for future generations.”

Parco Archeologico di Morgantina director Enrico Caruso added, “With this special exhibition, we are very much excited to launch a new era of close collaboration between the Museum of Aidone, today part of the Archeological Park of Morgantina, an ancillary institute of the Sicilian Ministry of Culture and Sicilian Identity, and the J. Paul Getty Museum. Thanks to this initiative, our reciprocal relationship will emerge strengthened and will be continually renewed in future projects, for fruitful academic and especially cultural exchanges.”

Photo from US News

Scientists excavating in Brazil have discovered what they believe to be the oldest rock engraving ever found. The finding indicates that humans may have inhabited the Americas 4,000 prior to what was previously believed.

According to University of Sao Paulo researchers, the anthropomorphic figure may be “the oldest figurative petroglyph ever found in the new world.” They also referred to it as the “earliest indisputable testimony of rock art in the Americas.”

The depiction was found in the Lapa do Santo rock in Brazil. The figure was “pecked into the bedrock” and consisted of “tri-digits” and a “C”shaped head.

One of the archeologists, Danilo Bernardo, wrote “When we found it, it was a great surprise. During our excavations, we never attempted to look for any rock art.”

The style of the etching is very different from other ancient art found in Argentina and Brazil, which lead scientists to conclude that the Clovis people were not in fact the first humans to live in the Western Hemisphere.

“The variability was impossible to be reached in a short span of time, suggesting the idea that the peopling of the New World occurred prior to the antiquity recognized by the Clovis model,” the archeologist explained.

Brafa’s event this year, which took place from January 21st thru 29th, hosted around 120 art dealers from more than ten countries. This year, 54 of them came from Belgium. The program ensures a variety of exhibitors, ranging from antiquities to contemporary art, by allowing only 20% of participants to re-attend each year.

This year’s impressive antique dealers included Phoenix Ancient Art, as well as Galerie Chenel, Roswitha Eberwein and Tradart. Tradart, a coin specialist, presented a silver tetradrachm with the nymph Arethuse from around 450 BC, while Phoenix’s highlights included an Aegean marble idol from the 3rd millennium BC.

Other artifacts on display included medieval sculptures and other works of art from Mullany and De Backker. The most impressive in these exhibits included a Burgundian limestone sculpture of the Virgin from around 1450 in exquisite condition, complete with original polychromy, as well as an anonymous “Nativity” from 1500 based on a creation of Hugo van der Goes.

The fair was also abundant in Asian art from the 10th and 11th centuries, including a Dancing Ganesh from Central India and whalebone, ivory, tortoiseshell, buffalo horn and rosewood Japanese Bachi. A 1992 Picasso, “Still Life with Fruit Bowl and Guitar”, previously unknown, was also displayed. Other pieces included a bejeweled pendant, unique furniture and much more.

The exhibit, called “Ancient Bronzes of the Asian Grasslands from the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation” comes alongside four other new exhibits at the Holter. The 85 artifacts were created by people of the Asian steppes and used by chieftains, shamans and horsemen.

According to Holter curator Yvonne Seng, the steppe artisans were the first to domesticate the horse. They were also one of the leading parties who traded along the Silk Road through Asia and Europe.

“It’s a huge honor,” Seng said of hosting the exhibit, which features items like ancient cauldrons used by shamans, yak-shaped belt buckles, intricate swords and knives and more.

Other exhibits opening include the gallery of life-size modern-day warriors in “Wanxin Zhang: A Ten Year Survey,” as well as “Horse and Rider,” “Shifting Perspectives,” and “Invite Your Demons to Tea.”

Seng said: “It’s exciting, it’s really exciting to have all these exhibits together… it will be a feast for the eye. I think it will be a great celebration for the 25th.”

The exhibit, entitled “Art and Magic: Treasures from the Fondation Gandur Pour l’Art,” focuses on the “art and magic” of ancient Egypt and its fascinating history.

The exhibit premiered on December 17^th, and will remain open to the public until the end of April.

“The Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg is proud to bring these distinguished works of art to America,” Kent Lydecker, Museum Curator, said in a press release. “The quality of the objects will be a revelation to scholars and to the public.”

Egyptologist Dr. Bianchi was brought onto the exhibit’s team as a guest curator. He explained that the spirituality of the Egyptian nation is apparent in their art and design. Materials gathered for the exhibition were treated with special care, with priests and workers working together in the process. Some objects were even subjected to rituals before being moved to and from the quarry.

The works include three blue-green faience hippopotami, similar to the beloved Egyptian “William” in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Two of the exhibit’s hippopotami date from the Middle Kingdom, and one from the Late Period, or the Persian Period. The hippopotamus theme was truly international, being the subject of art in regions ranging from Egypt to Iran and Levant. Though the hippopotamus looks benevolent and almost cute, it was considered a dangerous force of nature in both this life and the next.

Some of the exhibit’s other highlights include a light green Egyptian New Kingdom figurine of a seated antelope; an Egyptian pectoral depicting Ramses; a Greek aryballos shaped as a hedgehog from the mid-6^th century B.C.; an Egyptian amphora with a gold leaf wreath from the Hellenistic period and a Late Period Egyptian dish embellished with a pair of lions.

The exhibition features the private collection of the Aboutaam family, which was initiated by Sleiman Aboutaam, and continued by his two sons Ali Aboutaam and Hicham Aboutaam. In January, the exhibit will travel to BRAFA, the 57^th Brussels Antiques and Fine Arts Fair, Tour and Taxis, and will later appear on display at Phoenix Ancient Art in Geneva.

The Park Avenue Armory hosted the International Fine Arts & Antique Dealers Show last month. Launched by Anna and Brian Haughton, the show will be followed by the Art Antiques Show in London next June.

Both Haughton fairs are intended for collectors, without showy displays and tourist attractions. Anna Haughton explained: “We are interested in showing the things that real collectors want.”

This year’s top three bets include:

1. Fertility Goddess

Made in Thessaly some 7,000 years ago, this tiny curvy marble sculpture stands only five inches tall. A true find at Phoenix Ancient Art of Hichaam Aboutaam and Ali Aboutaam, the figurine expresses true female beauty in the Aegean region during the Neolithic Period.

1. Chinoiserie Chimneypiece

Ronald Phillip’s George III carved chimney piece stands ten and a half feet tall. The architectural item, covered in rococo ornament, was going for $1.3 million. Made around 1755, the piece is believed to have been made by Matthias Lock, with the original drawing currently kept at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

1. Bow Owls

Two realistic-looking owls perch on twentieth century ormolu, made by Bow, the English firm, in 1750s. London’s Brian Haughton Gallery was selling them for nearly $300,000.

Found at Blombos Cave in Cape Town, the shells were found alongside various other tools, suggesting that the users were mixing flakes of ochre, an iron ore used to create red and yellow shades, with other compounds to create a liquid paste.

According to the study, “a bone was probably used to stir the mixture and to transfer some of the mixture out of the shell.”

The paint could have been ceremonial, decorative or protective, used perhaps on the body.

“Ochre may have been applied with symbolic intent as decoration on bodies and clothing during the Middle Stone Age,” explained Christopher Henshilwood, head of the study at the Institute for Human Evolution at the University of Witwatersrand.

“This discovery represents an important benchmark in the evolution of complex human cognition in that it shows that humans had the conceptual ability to source, combine and store substances that were then possibly used to enhance their social practices.”

A glassware history researcher and part-time instructor at Tokai University, Akiko Inoue, analyzed the pieces, and concluded that the vessels must have had a special significance.

The fact that “they were treated so importantly even though they were broken pieces suggests the original vessels they came from may have had some special meaning,” Inoue said.

Experts believe that the original glass vessels were made through glassblowing, though with a more advanced technique than some other glass balls found alongside them. Basing their theory on both technique and technology, researchers concluded that the pieces were made between the 10th and 12th century in China, while the gold foil was likely added in Japan.

Now on display at the Hosho Museum, the pieces still present several mysteries. Yoshitaka Aruga, a professor of the Tokyo University of the Arts, said the patterns are “simple and pictorial.” He added that the pattern on the lid looks like it could signify trickling rain. “The patterns let us imagine ancient times,” he said.

Norihiko Ogura, a professor at the same university, said the design can be seen as the inner core of a flower, as well. “There are probably meanings to the designs and the fact that gold was used, but these and many other things, including technical questions like how they applied the gold leaf, are still mysteries,” he said.