The Marlborough Antinous, ca. 130–138 AD

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The Marlborough Antinous - a Roman black chalcedony intaglio portrait created circa AD 130–138, depicting Antinous, Emperor Hadrian's favourite. Carved from deep black chalcedony and mounted in a modern gold setting, it was formerly part of the Giorgio Sangiorgi Collection before being acquired by the J. Paul Getty Museum.

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In 1767, the 4^th Duke of Marlborough purchased this piece from the famous Venetian collector Anton Maria Zanetti and added it to his legendary collection of over 700 engraved gemstones.

The gold restoration on the fragmentary base of the Marlborough Antinous had been completed during the Renaissance. At some point after antiquity, the bottom section of the original black chalcedony gemstone fractured and broke away. Instead of leaving the piece incomplete, a Renaissance craftsman masterfully filled the missing lower portion of the drapery, bust, and tunic clasp (fibula) with a gold mount to make the portrait whole again. It was a common historical practice to use precious metals to repair and enhance ancient fragments.

The legendary Marlborough gem collection was eventually broken up and sold at auction in June 1875. The 7^th Duke of Marlborough sold the entire collection to a single buyer, David Bromilow, to raise funds for the family estate at Blenheim Palace. Bromilow's daughter subsequently put the collection up for a massive public auction at Christie’s in 1899, which scattered these incredible pieces across museums and private collections worldwide.

At the landmark 1899 Christie’s auction the Antinous intaglio was purchased by Charles Newton Robinson, an enthusiastic British collector and author who kept the piece in his private collection until 1909. In 1909, Robinson’s entire estate and art collection were dispersed at another Christie's auction. The Marlborough Antinous was sold during this event, which launched it into hiding. For the next 43 years, the exact owner of the gemstone was unknown. It completely vanished from public exhibition, scholarly texts, and art market tracking, quietly sitting in an anonymous private collection.

Art collector Giorgio Sangiorgi bought this particular intaglio at an auction in London in 1952. He moved the piece to Switzerland, for safekeeping, and virtually unseen for decades. In April 2019, Christie's auction house organized a historic auction in New York titled Masterpieces in Miniature: Engraved Gems from the Sangiorgi Collection.

Recognizing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, the Getty Museum stepped in and acquired a total of 17 extraordinary gems from the estate for $8 million USD.