A Marble Fountain Figure of Pan, Roman Imperial, circa 1st Century A.D., with 18th Century or Earlier Restorations

based on a Hellenistic work of the 2nd Century B.C., standing against a rocky outcrop with the weight on his right leg, his head looking down and turned to his right, and holding an amphora balanced on his left shoulder over a goatskin, his grinning face with divided beard, full parted lips, and gnarled brow, the vessel pierced for use as a waterspout.

appraised by Hofrat Dr. Julius Banko, Curator of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna, circa 1925 (the document is no longer extant)
Ludwig Zweig, Vienna (1888-1945)
by descent to his son Herbert Zweig (1919-1995), Buzzard's Bay, Mass.
acquired from the above by the present owner in the early 1980s

"Gift of the Gods: The Art of Wine and Revelry," The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, June 16th to October 21st, 2001

Head repaired but most likely original with strips of marble along the join, arms, lower legs, and lower half of base restored, mouth, handles and lower body of vessel formerly restored in marble, surface re-polished overall, joins between restored and original parts have been painted over, various small chips and abrasions overall. Several fingers missing on restored right hand, which is attached to the support by a metal pin. Rust stains on right hand.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

The present figure is the only known marble sculpture in the round representing Pan standing and carrying an amphora on his shoulder.

Only a handful of small Roman bronzes represent the same subject; they tend to show the god in a more precarious stance, presumably due to a heightened state of inebriation (see Antikenmuseum Berlin. Die Ausgestellten Werke, 1988, p. 251, no. 17, E. Babelon and A. Blanchet, Catalogue des bronzes antiques de la Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, 1895, pp. 195f., no. 441, and A. de Ridder, Les bronzes antiques du Louvre, vol. I, Paris, 1913, p. 82, no. 563, pl. 41 [see N. Marquardt, Pan in der hellenistischen und kaiserzeitlichen Plastik, Bonn, 1995, p. 12, no. 10, p. 46, no. 55, pl. 7,3, and p. 49, no. 59]).

Two Roman marble fountain figures show Pan in the more common seated position and holding the amphora on his left thigh (see Marquardt, op. cit., p. 115, no. 1, pl. 16.3 [Wallmoden Collection, Göttingen: http://arachne.uni-koeln.de/item/objekt/38546 ], and pp. 115-116, no. 2, pl. 16,4 [Prado], the latter mentioned as a fountain figure in B. Kapossy, Brunnenfiguren der hellenistischen und römischen Zeit, Zurich, 1969, p. 28).

It is not known when Ludwig Zweig, his son Herbert, and his daughter Gertrude, left Austria. They obtained their immigration visas to the U.S. in Nice, France, on December 8th, 1941, and set sail from Casablanca to New York on December 26th, 1941. The present statue was among the belongings they brought to America. Herbert served in the U.S. Army from January 15th, 1943 to October 20th, 1945.

Ludwig Zweig was manager of the Viennese bank Auspitz, Lieben & Co., which went into bankruptcy in 1931. He was then appointed as liquidator and put in charge of selling the celebrated art collection of his employer and friend Stefan Auspitz von Artenegg (1869-1945) through the Bachstitz Gallery in La Hague, The Netherlands. A 1931 inventory of the Auspitz Collection mentions two ancient marble sculptures, including an "ancient marble statue of a satyr" appraised as Roman by Dr. Julius Banko: "Antik Marmorstatue Satyr [röm., Dr. Bank(o)" (Sophie Lilie, Was Einmal war. Handbuch der enteigneten Kunstsammlungen Wiens, Vienna, 2003, p. 119 [1931 inventory of Stefan Auspitz's art collection, Schwarzenbergst. 3, Grosser Salon, Vienna, no. 349]).

The Auspitz statue is recorded as having remained in storage in Vienna until 1941, when it might have been seized by the art sale section of the Gestapo (the Vugesta) as part of the remainder of the Auspitz Collection. A Roman marble torso of a young satyr appraised in 1925 by Julius Banko was offered for sale at the Dorotheum in Vienna on March 19th, 1941 (lot 219A), the auction house where most art seized from Jewish families was sold at the time. However, the description and photo do not seem to match the description of the Auspitz statue.