CINERARY URN FOR SEXTUS AERARIUS Marble Dimensions: 30 x 25.4 cm. Roman art, c. the reign of Claudius, 40–70 AD. Provenance Former 18th-century European private collection (based on restoration techniques) Olivier Ginac, Nîmes French private collection, near Nîmes, acquired from O. Ginac in the early 1980s Sotheby’s London, Antiquities, 13 June 2016, lot 70, hammer price plus buyer’s premium £26,000 The front is carved with a festooned garland of interlaced pointed leaves and berries, supported at each corner by a ribbon-wrapped bucranium. Four birds are pecking at the garland: two in the upper lunette, one in each lower corner. The framed rectangular panel surmounting the scene bears a four-line Latin inscription, most of which has been chiselled away; only the name of the deceased (Sextus Aerarius) remains legible on the top line. Each side panel is carved in shallower relief with a festooned garland framed by undulating and spiralling ribbons, featuring a patera in the lunette on one side and an oenochoe on the other. The lid, featuring a pediment and volutes, is decorated with a pattern of staggered, interlocking leaves, whilst the tympanum depicts two birds facing each other and pecking at fruit. One corner of the lid has been restored. A Roman Marble Cinerary Urn inscribed for Sextus Aerarius, circa A.D. 40–70