CNG 90, Lot: 1026. Estimate $750. Sold for $900. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CARIA, Cnidus. Caracalla, with Plautilla. AD 198-217. Æ (32mm, 18.18 g, 6h). Confronted busts of Caracalla right, laureate, draped, and cuirassed, and Plautilla left, draped / Praxitiles’ Cnidian Aphrodite, holding drapery that falls behind amphora, standing left, facing Asclepius standing facing, leaning on serpent-entwined staff. Karl -; SNG München -; SNG von Aulock -; BMC 100. VF, light, even roughness. Rare.

From Group CEM. Ex Arnold Mallinson Collection (Spink 39, 6 December 1984), lot 20.

Because of the city’s connection with Aphrodite, in the fourth century BC, Cnidos acquired a cult-statue of the goddess by the sculptor Praxitiles. After it was rejected by the citizens of Cos – for whom it had been commissioned – because it showed Aphrodite nude for the first time, Cnidos purchased the statue, erecting it in an open air temple so that it could be viewed from all angles. As a result, it became a popular tourist attraction and the subject of numerous tales of all types.