Guennol Lioness

This is a small stone statue. It is made of limestone. It looks like a lion and a person.

It is very old. It is five thousand years old. People made it near Baghdad. This was a long time ago.

It is a masterwork of art. It was once in a museum. Many people liked to see it there.

One man bought it at a big sale. He paid a lot of money for it. It was a record price.

This art shows how people used to live. It is a special piece of history.

The Guennol Lioness is a very old statue. It is made of limestone. It is just over 8 cm tall. This piece is about 5,000 years old.

The statue shows a mix of a lion and a person. This is called an anthropomorphic figure. It has the strong body of a lion. It also has human features. People in Mesopotamia may have made it. They lived near Baghdad in Iraq. This was around the time people first used the wheel. It was also when the first cities began.

Some people think the statue is a lioness. They see soft curves on her lower body. Others think it might be a sexless creature. In ancient times, people often made art like this. They combined animals and humans to show power.

This statue is also famous for its price. In 2007, it sold at an auction. A collector paid $57.2 million for it. At that time, it was the most expensive sculpture ever sold. It was on display at the Brooklyn Museum for many years. It was named after the man who owned it. His name was Alastair Bradley Martin. Guennol is the Welsh name for Martin.

The Guennol Lioness is a tiny but powerful piece of art. It is a limestone statue that stands just over 8 cm tall. This small object shows a mix of human and lion features. This type of art is called an anthropomorphic figure. People in ancient Mesopotamia likely made it. It was likely created about 5,000 years ago. This was a time when the first cities began to grow. It was also when people first used the wheel.

The statue has a very special shape. It shows a muscular body that looks like a lion. It also has human parts. A scholar named Edith Porada looked at it in 1950. She called it a lioness because of the curves on the lower body. She also noted the absence of male organs. However, she said it might also be a sexless creature. This shape shows how ancient people thought about power. They combined animals and humans to show strength.

This artwork has a long history of travel. It was said to be found near Baghdad, Iraq. It reached New York by 1931. A collector named Alastair Bradley Martin bought it in 1948. He got it from the collection of Joseph Brummer. The statue was on loan to the Brooklyn Museum of Art for many years. It stayed there from 1948 until its big sale in 2007. The name "Guennol" comes from the Welsh name for Martin.

The statue became very famous during an auction. On December 5, 2007, it sold at Sotheby's auction house. An English collector bought it for $57.2 million. Experts thought it would sell for much less. They estimated a price between $14 million and $18 million. At that time, it was the most expensive sculpture ever sold. It beat the record held by a work by Pablo Picasso. It also cost more than a 2,000-year-old bronze figure called Artemis and the Stag.

Other famous works share similar ideas. You can see animal and human mixes on the Great Lyre. That piece was found at the King's Grave in Ur. An archaeologist named Sir Leonard Woolley found it in the early twentieth century. Many ancient gods were shown as these hybrid figures. This art might have come from the Proto-Elamites. Even though the Guennol Lioness is small, it tells a huge story. It links the dawn of civilization to our world today.

The Guennol Lioness is a tiny limestone sculpture from the dawn of civilization. It is an anthropomorphic figure, which means it merges human and animal features. This specific piece depicts a muscular, lion-like being with human qualities. It is estimated to be approximately 5,000 years old. This era was a monumental turning point for humanity. It coincided with the first use of the wheel and the rise of cuneiform writing. It also saw the emergence of the very first cities.

Physically, the sculpture is remarkably small, measuring just over 8 cm or 3.25 inches in height. Despite its size, it possesses a powerful presence. The figure shows a muscular body that blends the strength of a lion with human forms. In 1950, a scholar named Edith Porada studied the piece carefully. She described it as a lioness due to the feminine curves of the lower body. She also noted the absence of male organs. However, Porada suggested the figure might actually represent a sexless creature.

This style of art carries deep meaning regarding ancient beliefs. Many deities in the ancient Near East were represented as anthropomorphic figures. By combining different species, people believed they could attain power over the physical world. They used the superior physical attributes of animals to represent divine strength. The lioness itself was a frequent subject of veneration. This was likely due to the coordinated hunting techniques of female lions. Some researchers believe the Sumerians may have borrowed this artistic hybrid style from the Proto-Elamites.

Similar artistic themes appear in other famous ancient artifacts. For example, the Great Lyre features anthropomorphic figures on its front panel. This trapezoidal panel has both top and bottom registers showing these hybrids. The Great Lyre was discovered at the "King's Grave" in Ur, located in present-day Iraq. A British archaeologist named Sir Leonard Woolley found it during the early twentieth century. This discovery helped scholars understand how early cultures visualized the divine.

The history of the Guennol Lioness involves many travels and owners. It was reportedly found at a site near Baghdad, Iraq. The sculpture reached New York by 1931. In 1948, Alastair Bradley Martin acquired the piece from the collection of Joseph Brummer. The statue was on loan to the Brooklyn Museum of Art from 1948 until 2007. Its name, "Guennol," is actually the Welsh name for Martin. This long period of display allowed many people to see the masterpiece.

The sculpture gained worldwide attention during a massive auction at Sotheby's. On December 5, 2007, it sold for $57.2 million to an English collector. This price was much higher than the $14 million to $18 million experts had estimated. At the time of its sale, it became the most expensive sculpture ever sold at auction. It surpassed the record held by Pablo Picasso's Tete de femme (Dora Maar). It also exceeded the $28.6 million paid for Artemis and the Stag in June 2007.

However, the record for the most expensive sculpture did not stay with the lioness for long. On February 3, 2010, a different work took the top spot. This was the second edition of a cast of L'Homme qui marche I (Walking Man I). This sculpture was created by the artist Alberto Giacometti. It sold for £65,001,250, which was about $104,327,006. This sale officially surpassed the Guennol Lioness in auction value.

The Guennol Lioness remains a vital link to our ancient past. It is described by Sotheby's as one of the last known masterworks from the dawn of civilization still held in private hands. It connects modern collectors and museums to the very beginning of organized human society. Through its small, limestone form, we see the origins of complex art and religion. It shows how humans have always used creativity to understand their place in the world.