KOLLER VIEW 01/26

pre view. 02 5 The Venus in our Works of Art auction was created in the 2 nd century CE. Owing to its particular physical shape, the Carrara marble torso is described as the ‘Knidian type’. The distinctive gentle S-curve derives from the Aphrodite of Knidos, created around 350 BCE. Its sculptor, Praxiteles, depicted the goddess completely nude for the first time, marking a milestone in ancient art. The fascination emanating from this key work reached its height during the Roman Imperial period, from which our Venus dates. Philosophers such as Cicero, Pliny the Elder and Lucian praised its ideal beauty. Greek and Roman sculptors adopted the celebrated model in all sizes and materials. With the spread of these replicas, the Greek Aphrodite became the Latin Venus, soon adorning private residences, public buildings and temples. Not only the Bartholoni Venus itself is significant, but also its provenance, traceable back to the 19 th century. The first documentation of the sculpture dates to Jean- François Bartholoni (1796–1881), a successful Parisian banker and pioneer of railway development in France and Switzerland. His family, orginally from Tuscany, had set- tled in Geneva in the 17 th century. Bartholini’s close ties to Geneva and his Italian her- itage are reflected in the construction of the Villa Bartholoni, today home to Geneva’s Musée d’Histoire des Sciences. His son Charles built the Château Sans-Souci in Versoix between 1882 and 1884, and richly furnished it with sculptures, furniture, paintings, silver and other works of art. In 1926, Charles’s descendants sold the estate along with its contents. The Venus reap- peared at a Basel auction four years later. Whether it passed directly or indirectly into the collection of the Dutch antiquities collector Henri E. Smeets (1905–1980) remains unclear. Most recently, in 2023, the Bartholoni Venus was shown in the exhibition ‘The Awakened. The Ruins of Antiquity and the Birth of the Italian Renaissance’ at the Royal Castle in Warsaw. For further information Works of Art & Decorative Arts Stephan Koller skoller@kollerauctions.com Online Catalogues www.kollerauctions.com The Bartholoni Venus as an ideal of beauty Preview of the Works of Art auction on 26Mar ch 2026 3 Marble Torso of the ‘Bartholoni’ Venus. Roman, Imperial period, circa 2 nd century CE. Knidian type. Carrara mar- ble. H 184 cm (with base). Estimate: CHF 500 000/800 000 3