There is a marble sculpture of only 22.9 centimeters high, which was sold for $14.47 million at Christie's New York Classic Art Week, close to 100 million yuan.
It is a marble female statue from the Bronze Age, 3000-2200 BC, excavated in the Anatolian region of Turkey, the Glenorgas.
The original estimate of the high-foot lot was $3 million, and it was sold for nearly 5 times the estimated price, which also made everyone pay more attention to these relics from ancient civilizations.
At the end of the 19th century, the ancient city of Kilia in the Garibaldi region of Kale, Ghana, was little known in Turkey, and an American archaeologist found the idols there and brought them back to the American Archaeological Center in Athens.
According to the place of discovery, they were named the idols of Kilia. The Kiria style, represented by the statues of Kilia, was in a period of transition to the Bronze Age, when marble was cut using pumice and subsequently polished with bubble stone and leather. This horizontal eggshell-shaped tilted sideways upwards of the head contour makes it difficult to carve the eyes and ears, and the nose is unusually prominent. The deity has a slender neck, broad shoulders, and legs that are wing-like.
Some of the 6- to 23-centimeter-tall statues have a base that sits directly on the flat floor, while some have a metatarsal area that resembles a ballet dancer's foot. This auction is one of these pieces, which represents the highest level of art of an era in the Anatolian region.
Another statue of The God Kilia is about 20 centimeters high and dated to about 6,000 years. Because its eyes are squinting at the sky, Westerners call them "astrologers", and Turkish means "cyclops". The 2005 New York auction was valued at $1.8 million.
Here are also some interesting statues of The Deity Kilia:
1. A 4.5 cm tall mixed gold and silver deity statue photographed in New York in 1966.
2. The Sadbok-Hanim Museum purchased a 6-centimeter-tall statue of Kiria at christie's in New York for $105,000 at christie's in 2010.
3. This statue of Kiria has a chest and is special. The statue sold for 20,000 euros at the Boyce Girard auction in Paris.
4. The Shelby White Museum also houses a statue of the god Kilia called the Lyon-Levi Couple.