Phoenix Ancient Art

Last updated December 12, 2024

Phoenix Ancient Art, located in Geneva and New York City, is a second-generation antiquities dealer specializing in Greek and Roman ancient art.^[1] Its works of art have been purchased by arts and antiquities private collectors as well as museums such as New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Louvre Museum in Paris. They have historically dealt in antiquities from the Sumerian art and Ancient Roman artistic traditions, as well as from Ancient Greek and Ancient Egyptian civilizations.

Notable collections

Phoenix Ancient Art has facilitated numerous museum acquisitions of seminal ancient art objects.

Noteworthy sales and provenances from Phoenix include:

The Apollo Sauroctonos, known also as the Lizard or Python Slayer, currently attributed to Praxiteles, at the Cleveland Museum of Art ^[2]
Bust of Isis from the 25th Dynasty (750–656 B.C) in Egypt, and Aryballos in the form of a female bust, early 6th century B.C., both at Princeton Museum of Art ^[3]^[4]
Ka-Nefer-Nefer at the Saint Louis Art Museum
Bronze Statue of a Man, ca. mid-2nd to 1st century B.C., Greek,^[5] and Marble two-sided relief, 1st century A.D., Roman, the Metropolitan Museum of Art ^[6]
Eye idol (larger), late 4th millennium B.C., stone, Yale University Art Gallery ^[7]
The private collection of Harvard University molecular biologist and Nobel Laureate Walter Gilbert ^[8]
The Man Dressed in a Roman Toga, Called “The Orator” at the Louvre Abu Dhabi ^[9]
Etruscan Amphora attributed to the Ivy League Group at the Art Institute of Chicago ^[10]
Bust of a Flavian Matron at the Toledo Museum of Art ^[11]
Roman Marble Head of Pseudo-Seneca/Hesiod at the J. Paul Getty Museum ^[12]
Attic Black Figure Amphora with a scene from the Iliad attributed to the Hattatt Painter at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston ^[13]
Ramesses II relief at the Miho Museum ^[14]

Background

Family History

Phoenix Ancient Art was founded by the Lebanese businessman Sleiman Aboutaam in 1968^[15] and incorporated in 1995. The business continued under the leadership of his son, Ali Aboutaam, and his son, Hicham Aboutaam has his own New York based gallery, Electrum.^[16]^[15]

Ali and Hicham were born in Beirut in 1965 and 1967 respectively. In the 1980s, at the height of the Lebanese Civil War, Ali was kidnapped by a Syrian gang and held hostage until Sleiman procured his release.^[17] Following the incident, the family (Sleiman, Souad, the boys and their sister Noura) relocated to Geneva, Switzerland, where Phoenix Ancient Art is located today.

In the early 90s, the young men earned a formidable reputation as buyers. Nicknamed "Tall and Taller" by the socialite set (such as those attending events with art collector Leon Levy and his wife Shelby White), they were the awe and the fear of fellow industry players.^[18]

In 1998, the brothers assumed control of the family business. The takeover would have been a natural succession, but it was marked by the sudden loss of Sleiman and Souad on Swissair Flight 111.^[19] The resilience demonstrated by the Hicham and Ali was staggering, and proved important through the changing tides of the antiquities market.

In 2023 after an investigation and proceedings lasting seven years, then president and co-founder, Ali Aboutaam, entered into a plea bargain deal. A statement from his lawyers says that “a few dozen objects”, out of 15,000 investigated, were “documented below legal requirements or returned by our client, of his own initiative, on the grounds that they could have been obtained, by the person who placed them on the market, but without [Aboutaam’s] knowledge, in a manner contrary to the law”. Aboutaam retired two years ago from the gallery “to focus on the establishment of a foundation”, says his co-founder and brother, Hicham Aboutaam, now president of Phoenix Ancient Art. “We operate publicly and in total transparency in the strictest locations in the world [for antiquities], New York and Geneva, which gives comfort to our buyers.”^[20]

Events

In April 2009, Phoenix Ancient Art launched e-Tiquities.com, an e-commerce platform for a wide range of artworks, also including jewelry, figurines, amulets, sculpture and pottery from regions as diverse as ancient Greece and Rome, Byzantium, Egypt, the Near East and the Islamic world.^[21]^[22]

In early 2014, Phoenix Ancient Art opened a second gallery in Geneva called ‘Phoenix Ancient Art Young Collectors’, a unique gallery space that exhibits a large variety of objects from the 6th millennium B.C. through the 14th century A.D.^[23]^[24]

On June 12, 2019, Phoenix Ancient Art opened a new gallery in Brussels.^[25]

Fairs and exhibitions

Phoenix Ancient Art participates in a number of international fairs, such as the Biennale des Antiquaires (Paris), the Brussels Antiques and Fine Art Fair BRAFA (Brussels), the International Fine Art and Antiques Show (New York City),^[16] the PAD (London), the Point Art Fine Art Fair (Monaco), the Salon Art + Design (New York),^[26] the Spring Masters Fair (New York),^[27] TEFAF (New York),^[28] and in 2024 they participated in the Treasure House Fair (London).^[29] They also hold local themed events in their galleries several times a year accompanied by their gallery publications which include:

Crystal, hardcover editions^[30]
Softcover editions^[31]^[32]^[33]
The Painter's Eye: The Art of Greek ceramics^[34]
Warrior: Ancient Arms and Armor^[35]
Faiences^[36]
Fabulous Monsters^[37]
Greek and Roman Gold^[38]
Sacred Scents and Flames from the Ancient World^[39]
Art of the two lands : Egypt from 4000 B.C. to 1000 A.D.^[40]
Argos- the Dog in Antiquity^[41]
Exotics of the classical world^[42]
Alexander the Great and His World^[43]

Related Research Articles

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↑ "Eye idol (Larger) | Yale University Art Gallery".
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↑ Aboutaam, Ali; Aboutaam, Hicham (2016-01-01). Phoenix Ancient Art Catalogue - 2016/33. Phoenix Ancient Art SA.
↑ Aboutaam, Ali (2016-01-01). Phoenix Ancient Art Catalogue - 2016/32. Phoenix Ancient Art SA. ISBN 978-0-9856289-7-0.
↑ The Painter's Eye: The Art of Greek ceramics-- Greek vases from a Swiss Private Collection and Other European Collections. Illustrated Throughout (First ed.). Phoenix Ancient Art. 2010-01-01.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
↑ Aboutaam, Ali Aboutaam & Hicham (2012-01-01). Warrior: Ancient Arms and Armor. New York & Geneva: Phoenix Ancient Art.
↑ Aboutaam, Ali (2011-01-01). Phoenix Ancient Art Catalogue - FAIENCES - 2011. Phoenix Ancient Art SA. ISBN 978-0-9785649-8-8.
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↑ Art (Firm), Phoenix Ancient (2013). Sacred Scents and Flames from the Ancient World. Phoenix Ancient Art. ISBN 978-0-9847808-5-3.
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↑ Alexander the Great and His World: The Selection. Phoenix ancient art. 2015.