Few figures in the 20th century did more for fitness culture than Ben Weider. The Canadian founded the International Federation of BodyBuilders, introduced Arnold Schwarzenegger to the world, and successfully lobbied the International Olympic Committee to consider bodybuilding a sport. A recognition of Weider’s global influence came in 1964 when the United Arab Republic of Bodybuilding Federation gifted him a 3,300-year-old Egyptian stele as a token of gratitude.
When it came to historical artifacts, Weider was better known for his Napoleonic hoard (which included locks of the Little Corporal’s hair), but the stele of Pharaoh Thutmose IV remained in his collection of 19th-century decorative arts and Quebecois painting until his death in 2008. The 2.5-foot-tall carved limestone depicts the 15th century B.C.E. pharaoh wearing the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt and holding the Was scepter, symbols of his divine authority. To the right, an offering bearer stands in front of the king bringing offerings of plants.
Close up of Stele of Thutmose IV. Photo: courtesy David Brunetti/David Aaron.
After being sold at Iegor Auctions in Montreal for 56,000 CAD (then $38,000), the Thutmose stele is set to appear at TEFAF New York (May 15–19), courtesy of antiquity specialists David Aaron, which is offering the piece for £450,000 ($608,000).
“We interpret the stele’s detailed carvings as a tool to assert the pharaoh’s legitimacy and close relationship with the gods,” the gallery’s director Salomon Aaron said over email.
The story through which Thutmose IV claimed such authority remains one of the best-known elements of his reign. Thutmose was not the chosen successor of his father, Pharaoh Amenhotep II, and he derived his legitimacy from a dream he’d had as a prince. One day while on a hunting trip in the Giza desert, Thutmose had taken a nap in the shade of the Sphinx, where he’d been visited by the sun god who promised him the kingdom of Egypt if he would clear away the sands from the monument. As the so-called Dream Stele between the paws of the Giza Sphinx tells, Thutmose carried out the restoration and became pharaoh.
Greywacke Goddess. Photo: courtesy David Brunetti/David Aaron.
Accompanying the stele to New York is a 2,500-year-old bust of an Egyptian goddess carved in greywacke stone. Dated to the reign of the 6th B.C.E. ruler Amasis II, the bust was original considered a high-quality fake when it appeared at an auction in South West England in 2022. This was predominately on account of its shiny surface, well-preserved nose, and murky provenance. Over the course of a year, however, the antique specialists at David Aaron were able to authenticate it.
After removing the bust’s layers of wax and pigment, restorers found a stone that material analysis showed was quarried in Wadi Hammamat, a major mining region in Egypt’s Eastern Desert. The dodgy nose was deemed an 18th-century restoration in which a master craftsman had removed a section of stone from the back and affixed it to the front for aesthetic purposes.
“Several Egyptologist have suggested the bust belongs to a series of works attributed to a single artist or workshop, known as the Greywacke Master,” Aaron said. “[This is] based on the fine quality of carving, overall proportions, and smooth surface, that mark out the works of this master sculptor.”
The bust may have been part of a sculptural program designed for the Temple of Neith at Sais, a major centre of the cult of the goddess Neith, a goddess of war and weaving.
Researchers also succeeded in tracing the bust’s provenance all the way back to a 1923 sale at Hotel Drouot in Paris where it sold for 2,000 francs (roughly $2,400 today). David Aaron has given the Greywacke Goddess a price of £1.5 million ($2 million).
