Ex Moretti Collection
CNG 111, Lot: 715. Estimate $10000.
Sold for $14000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee. |
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Marcus Aurelius. As Caesar, AD 139-161. AV Aureus (19mm, 7.20 g, 6h). Rome mint. Struck under Antoninus Pius, AD 151-152. AVRELIVS CAE SAR AVG P II FIL, bare head left / TR POT VI COS II, Roma, helmeted, in military dress, standing left, holding Victory on extended right hand and parazonium in left. RIC III 452d (Pius); Calicó 1942; BMCRE 773 (Pius); Biaggi 876; Jameson –; Mazzini 643 (same obv. die). Superb EF, toned, underlying luster. Attractive high relief portrait.
From the Brexit Collection. Ex Numismatics Fine Arts XXVII (4 December 1991), lot 132; A. Moretti Collection (Numismatics Fine Arts XXII, 1 June 1989), lot 66.
Dr. Athos D. Moretti (1907-1993) was the director of a major Swiss pharmaceutical company who initially collected paintings. In the 1950s, at the urging of his wife, he switched to coins, and in time built up significant collections of Greek silver, Roman gold and Milanese coins of all eras. A generous patron of art and scholarship, he made his collections widely available for study and financed the publication of several important references. His gold collection was bought en bloc by Numismatic Fine Arts and sold anonymously at auction between 1989 and 1991. Very discrete during his lifetime, Moretti possessed a keen eye for quality and his collection pedigree has become highly prized since his passing.
