CIRCA 1ST-2ND CENTURY A.D.

Aime Peretie (1808-1882) was a collector and antiquarian as well as, from 1844 until his death in 1882, “Drogman Chancelier” of the French Consulate in Beirut. From there he directed and sometimes personally assisted in archaeological excavations, sending off objects to auction in Paris, donating to the Louvre and selling to private collectors. One of his most important clients was Louis de Clercq, who called Peretie his “zealous collaborator” (see H. Cassimatis, “Melchior de Vogue et alii and Cyrpus: Monsier Peretie,” in V. Tatton-Brown, ed., Cyprus in the 19th Century AD: Fact, Fancy and Fiction, pp. 216-221). Acquiring a whole range of classical antiquities, Peretie is known to have amassed a considerable collection of bronze Venuses, many of them ending up in de Clercq’s collection, as the case with this Aphrodite. For other examples of the type, formerly in the Peretie collection and sold to de Clercq, see A. de Ridder, op. cit., nos. 18, 20, 22, 27, and 31.