The Athena Promachos of Athens?

316, Lot: 512. Estimate $150. Sold for $320. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ISLAMIC, Anatolia & al-Jazira (Post-Seljuk). Zangids (Sinjar). Qutb al-Din Muhammad. AH 594-616 / AD 1197-1219. Æ Dirhem (28mm, 16.49 g, 6h). Sinjar mint. Dated AH 600 (AD 1203/4). Draped female bust facing, head right, wearing crested Greek-style helmet; name and title of Qutb al-Din Muhammad around / Name and titles of Abbasid Caliph al-Nasir and Ayyubid overlord Abu Bakr in five lines; mint and AH date in margin, tamgha in exergue. Whelan Type III; S&S Type 82.1 (same dies as the “exceptional style” piece illustrated on p. 104); Album 1880.3. VF, brown patina, pitting on obvese. Scarce type.

From the J.P. Righetti Collection. Ex Classical Numismatic Group Electronic Auction 162 (11 April 2007), lot 348.

Spengler and Saylees have presented a highly interesting hypothesis linking this type with one of the most important artistic achievements of the classical world. The bronze and ivory monumental statue of Athena Promachos, created around 460 BC by Pheidias of Athens, became one of the most admired art works of the ancient world. Except for an abortive effort by Caligula to remove it to Rome, it was a protected treasure of Athens for 750 years until Constantine removed it to his new capital of Constantinople in AD 330. The statue faded from view for nearly 900 years, until 1203, when Constantinople was beseiged by the forces of the Fourth Crusade. A superstitious populace, believing the mammoth statue was somehow beckoning the invaders, pulled it down and destroyed it. This wanton act of destruction would have appalled the few scholars still conversant with classical history, quite a number of whom were attached to the courts of Islamic rulers. Following the argument given by Spengler and Sayles, Qutb al-Din Muhammad, educated by such scholars, would have struck this coin to mark the loss of an important work of art at the hands of what the Turks would regard as barbaric westerners.