GREEK DRAMA

Sotheby’s sues nation in ancient loot dispute

SOTHEBY’S auction horsing around! house isn't

The art and antiquities broker has sued Greece in an unusual case over ownership of an ancient, 5-inch horse valued at $150,000 to $250,000.

The horse, listed at auction as “a Greek figure of a horse of Corinthian type with crested mane with fine notches at the edge,” was to have been sold on May 14 along with other items from the collection of the late art collectors Howard and Saretta Barnet, according to a suit filed Tuesday in Manhattan Federal Court. But at the last minute, Greece sent Sotheby’s a letter demanding that the horse from around the 8th century B.C. (above) not be put up for bid because it had “been stolen from Greece in violation of Greek patrimony laws,” according to the suit.

Sotheby’s complied with Greece’s demand, but said the government has no evidence the horse was stolen. Rather, the auction house says, the Barnets bought the horse fair and square in 1973 for roughly $20,000.

Sotheby’s suit — the first time the auction house has sued a government, according to the Financial Times — asks a judge to “clarify the rights of legitimate owners.”

“Our parents were passionate collectors who spent decades assembling an extensive and varied collection. Every object that entered their collection, including this ancient bronze sculpture, was bought in good faith,” the Barnet family said in a statement through Sotheby’s.