Possibly a female deity, Near Eastern, 6th-5th millenium BC. Red siliceous sandstone. Height 22.2 cm. Photo courtesy Cahn International AG

This idol with heavily abstracted forms is remarkable on account of its unadorned elegance. The wide hips and round buttocks underscore the figure’s femininity, the only other pointers to which are the two low mounds on the chest.

Provenance: Formerly collection of the French archaeologist Claude Schaeffer (1898-1982); thereafter collection of the archaeologist Pierre Ponsich (1912-1999), acquired in the 1960s

TEFAF New York Spring 2017