Month: March 2026

Dali’s largest work acquired by Dalí Museum in Florida

Modern(ish), Museums

An unique assemblage from a theatrical set designed and painted by Salvador Dalí for a 1939 ballet has been acquired by the Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. The auction lot included the backdrop curtain that is the largest work of art ever made by the surrealist master, plus four friezes and fours wings, for a total of 13 canvases. It is almost the complete set from the original staging, missing only the giant wooden swan which no longer survives. It sold at Bonhams Paris for €254,400 ($292,000).

In March 1939, Dalí was contracted to design the sets for the Ballet Russe de Monte-Carlo’s production of Venusberg, a one-act ballet that used the Venusberg Bacchanale from the first act of Richard Wagner’s opera Tannhäuser as the score. It was a perfect commission for a surrealist. Dalí wrote the libretto, a Freudian flight of fantasy wherein King Ludwig II of Bavaria encounters Venus in the form of a fish-headed mermaid and then a dragon. He stabs the goddess, and she splashes him with her “libidinous poison” which drives his mad. He then hallucinates, among other things, a dancer emerging from a giant wooden swan from the Leda myth, his lover, famed courtesan Lola Montez, and the Three Graces as dressmakers’ mannequins.

Dalí was in New York at that time, so he created a scale model of the set and had it shipped to Monaco. Under Dalí’s supervision, Ballet Russe de Monte-Carlo’s set designer Oreste Allegri and Prince Alexandre Schervachidze, head of the workshops, would execute his vision. The massive scenic backdrops for the mad king’s dreamscapes were laid out flat on the floor of the workshop and hand painted.

The backdrop constitutes the central and monumental element of this set imagined by Salvador Dalí. Over nine metres [30 feet] high and nearly eighteen metres [59 feet] wide, it unfolds a landscape that is at once mysterious and dreamlike, crossed by mythological, artistic and psychoanalytical references. At the centre rises majestically Mount Venus, occupying almost the entire height of the curtain. At its base, on the left, a waterfall flows into a calm pond. This presence of water, rare within this mineral and arid environment, introduces a pause in the landscape: it evokes both the source of life and the flow of time, elusive and continuous.

The symbolic mountain is pierced at its heart, revealing a tempietto and figures from the Italian Renaissance that reproduce the composition of Raphael’s Marriage of the Virgin, itself inspired by the architecture of Donato Bramante. Yet here the scene seems emptied of its original meaning: there is neither union nor true celebration. Love is absent. This absence may be linked to the figure of the swan spreading its wings, once placed in front of the mountain, which referred to the myth of Leda and evoked both desire, temptation and the guilt associated with feminine sin.

To the left of the mountain, the carcass of a wrecked boat bears witness to an ancient drama that time seems gradually to erase. Nearby, a figure stands with an arm raised in an ambiguous posture: a call for help, a gesture of despair, or a final attempt at communication? To the right, in the distance, a desert stretches to the horizon line, punctuated by immense enigmatic rocks. This arid space intensifies the feeling of solitude and infinity so characteristic of Dalí’s landscapes.

The friezes and wings framed the spaces that transition from the stage to the backstage. Dalí employed a cabinet of curiosities motif, painting drawers, some open, some closed, and cubbies, some empty, some with figures including busts, skulls, ewers, his wife Gala, a reclining nude and more. The wings are an abstract, organic line design that suggests musical notes dancing in space.

In September of that year, with Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland and the world about to plunge into war, the ballet’s name was changed from the Wagnerian Venusberg to the decidedly less German sounding Bacchanale. Dalí and Gala were in France then, and were unable to get to New York City for the premiere of the ballet at the Metropolitan Opera House on November 9, 1939, where it was a huge hit and of course caused many pearls to be clutched.

The company would perform Bacchanale with Dalí’s set for the next two years, then for one-off productions in 1945 and the last one in 1967. When the Ballet Russe de Monte-Carlo disbanded in 1968, the set was donated to the Ballet Foundation in New York. They donated it to Butler University in Indianapolis where it remained from 1970 until 2018 when it was sold at Sotheby’s New York for a private collection in Spain which loaned it out for display three times in Spain and Italy.

Now that it has been acquired by the Dalí Museum, the Bacchanale backdrop and wings will have a new home where they can be exhibited surrounded by thousands of other works by Dalí. The museum is embarking on a major expansion this year. Construction begins in the fall on an addition that will add 35,000 square feet to the existing building. The timing could not be better for them to figure out an ideal space to display such a monumental testament to Dalí’s work on the stage.

French culture ministry blocks sale of Baldung portrait

Renaissance

The rare silverpoint portrait of Susanna Pfeffinger by the German Renaissance artist Hans Baldung Grien was blocked from sale just 48 hours before it was set to go under the hammer. France’s Ministry of Culture declared it a national treasure on March 21st, blocking it from leaving France for 30 months and therefore from being sold at auction on March 23rd.

In a statement after the ministry’s decision, auction house Beaussant Lefèvre & Associés said they suspended the sale “despite strong interest from several international institutions and collectors,” which suggests they expected it to sell abroad. The were not pleased to have to cancel the sale on such short notice, and to be fair, they had filed for an export license on November 25, 2025. The ministry’s National Treasures Advisory Commission waited almost four months, meeting on March 18, 2026, to deliberate.

The Commission determined that the portrait was of “major interest to the national heritage from the point of view of history and art.” The ruling points to the importance of the artist and the small number of drawings by him — 252, only 15 of them portraits and only 12 of those done in the silverpoint technique (drawn with a silver-tipped stylus on paper coated in bone powder). The portrait “testifies to Baldung’s virtuosity in his use of the silverpoint technique, learned from [Albrecht] Dürer, recommended by Leonardo da Vinci in his Treatise on Painting and practiced by all the great artists of the period, such as Holbein the Elder and Hans Cranach, which allows very few corrections, requiring great sureness of line.” The opinion also cites the importance of the subject Susanna Pfeffinger as a member of the high society of Strasbourg, and the incredible uninterrupted ownership history of the portrait that has stayed in the family for generations since it was first made in 1517.

It appears important to retain on the territory this silverpoint portrait, emblematic of Baldung’s art, probably the only one still in private hands in France and without equivalent in French public collections, which has remained unknown to specialists and is strongly rooted in the history of Strasbourg, both by the person represented and by its continuous location in this city since its creation.

The pre-sale estimate was 1.5 – 3 million euros (ca. $1.74 – 3.5 million), but the portrait was likely to sell for much more than that, as the last Baldung portrait to come up for auction way back in 2007 sold for $3.7 million, and this is the only silverpoint portrait still in private hands. With export barred for the next two and a half years, Beaussant Lefèvre & Associés has gone back to drawing board, so the speak. They are now working to arrange a private sale to a French buyer who will keep the work in France.

Exceptional Roman cargo shipwreck found in Lake Neuchâtel

Ancient

The remains of a Roman vessel laden with cargo have been discovered on the bed of Lake Neuchâtel in Switzerland. The wreck sank between 20 and 50 A.D., and while the remains of the vessel itself are long gone, the site contains an exceptional diversity and quantity of artifacts — approximately 600 of them — many found intact. This is an unprecedented find in Switzerland, nor has any comparable example been found in any other inland waters north of the Alps.

The Neuchâtel Cantonal Archaeology Office (OARC) first spotted the wreck in an drone photography survey of the lake in November 2024. The survey was part of a project to monitor the lakebed’s vulnerable wrecks that has been ongoing since 2018. Maritime archaeologists followed-up a few days with an exploratory dive, and confirmed they’d found a large cargo of ceramics. They recovered a few artifacts for analysis, including a piece of wood that was radiocarbon tested returning a date range of between 50 B.C. and 50 A.D.

They returned in March 2025 to excavated the site, establishing a perimeter of the work area about 60 meters by 24 meters (196 x 79 feet). The center of was the area high concentration of ceramics, but the whole work area was divided into a grid for detailed documentation of every object and excavation. Several significant artifacts were discovered outside of the perimeter, including wooden and metal chariot wheels that are the only ones ever found in Switzerland. The team recovered about 150 objects from this first dig and they were taken to a restoration laboratory for conservation and stabilization.

Conservators developed a protocol to stabilize the recovered objects, keeping them in dimineralized water baths at the same temperature as the lake they came from, and then drying them gradually. The site was kept secret and monitored with waterproof cameras to protect the cargo from interference.

Excavations resumed after a year earlier this month. The goal was to precisely document every single artifact before recovering them. Most of the cargo consists of hundreds of ceramic tableware and amphorae, who sets of plates and bowls nested and stacked, likely the position they were in when packed in crates on the merchant ship. The largest number were terra sigillata (redware) platters, plates, goblets and bowls produced in the Swiss Central Plateau region. There were also amphorae of olive oil from Spain were also on board.

Other artifacts found in the wreck were tools from the ship’s crew, including metal kitchen gear like a bronze cauldron and a crucible, and an exceptionally preserved large wicker basket that held six ceramic pieces different from the rest of the cargo. This was likely the sailors’ cooking set.

Several horse bits and harness parts were found as well as four wood and metal cart wheels, plus metal artifacts from legionary gear like a highly decorated phalera, a fibula, a belt buckle and a dolabra (pickaxe). Two complete swords, one still inside its intact wooden scabbard, and one partial sword were found at the wreck site as well.

The swords and in particular the fibula help narrow down the date of the wreck. This style of fastening brooch only begins to appear on the archaeological record during the reign of Tiberius (14-37 A.D.). This range was also confirmed by dendrochronological analysis of a wooden board found under the stacked plates. The tree the board was made from was felled in 17 A.D.

These discoveries are evidence that the ship was at least escorted by legionaries, and given the dates, it was likely Legio XIII Gemina which was stationed at the Vindonissa camp (modern-day Windisch) in 16 A.D. It was tasked with preventing Germanic advances into the Swiss Plateau and the Alpine passes into Italy.

With such a large cargo, it’s possible the vessel was bringing supplies from Italy, Gaul and elsewhere in Helvetia to the legions garrisoning the Rhine and Danube. The wagons and horse gear on board are evidence that the Romans were prepared with a dual transport system, traveling lake routes with ships then moving seamlessly to land routes when necessary.

Enjoy this excellent video of the divers exploring the artifacts. The film quality is unusually high, so you get a really good look at the objects on the lakebed and as they are documented and recovered.

Toltec human sacrifice altar found in Mexico

Ancient, Pre-Hispanic

Archaeologists with Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) have discovered an ancient Toltec altar and human remains near the Tula archaeological zone north of Mexico City. It dates to the Tollan period (900–1150 A.D.) when Tula was the capital city of the Toltec Empire.

The momoztli (altar) measures about one meter (3.3 feet) square and was built out of different stones, including volcanic blocks and river stone. It consists of three sections: a base of andesite quarry stone with small blocks no more than four inches thick on the outer face, a second section of larger slabs of andesite and a top section composed of river stones and basalt.

Four skulls, one of them still connected to a vertebral column, and several long bones, probably femurs, were found placed on three of the four sides. Their placement suggests a ritual purpose, and archaeologists believe they may be the result of ceremonial decapitations. Ceramic vessels, including a black bowl containing another bowl, obsidian fragments, obsidian blades and bone tools, known to have been used in sacrificial rituals, were also found. Archaeologists also uncovered shell remains, spindle whorls and awls, objects that played roles in both ritual practices and daily life. The fourth side has not yet been fully excavated; there are likely to be remains there too.

At the base of the altar were two skulls, one facing upwards and the other southwest. As the levels descended, a compacted layer with stucco, possibly lime and sand, was detected, and beneath this were found the other two incomplete skeletons, as well as some vessels.

Heredia Guillén said there is little chance of finding complete skeletons, because perhaps only those parts of the individuals were offered as sacrifices. Once registered, they will be sent to the project’s physical anthropology laboratory in the State of Mexico to determine age, sex, bone pathologies, and even whether they were decapitated, since one of the skulls still appears to be attached to the spine.

“In this case, although metals were already being worked in the Postclassic period, we know that here decapitations were still done with obsidian or flint knives, and they left cut marks on the bones,” he explained.

The altar was found near the Tula Chico area, about 300 meters (984 feet) from the perimeter wall of the Toltec capital. Remains of walls and foundations indicate the altar was in the center of a courtyard. INAH archaeologists believe the walls are the remains of elite buildings as people of high social rank in Tula lived outside the walls of the city.

All of the artifacts and remains recovered from the excavation will be cleaned, conserved and studied in laboratory conditions. The bones will be analyzed to narrow down the date of deposition and to determine the individual’s age, sex, geographical origins, health and possible causes of death.

Hellenistic necropolis unearthed in Nessebar, Bulgaria

Ancient

Tombs from the Hellenistic era (3rd-2nd centuries B.C.) have been discovered in Nessebar, Bulgaria, with a rare stepped pit containing artifacts including a gilded bronze wreath.

Diggers found a stepped pit at the site, which is an unusual type of feature within the necropolis of ancient Mesambria. Enclosed within were several artifacts, including a gilded bronze wreath, a small silver coin placed as a symbolic payment for the dead, a jug, a scraping tool used for bathing, and a set of small animal bones used as game pieces.

The same excavation also turned up coins in silver and bronze, decorated drinking cups, small containers possibly used for oils and perfumes and popularly referred to as tear-collecting vessels, more scraping tools, glass beads, and a range of ceramic pieces.

According to ancient chroniclers, modern-day Nessebar was founded in the 6th century B.C. as the Greek colony of Mesambria. It was part of the Pentapolis (five allied cities) on the Black Sea, and later a member of the Delian League, the confederation of Greek city-states arrayed against Persia under the leadership of Athens. It was a prosperous center of trade and minted its own coins, including gold ones during the Hellenistic period.

Mesambria had several large public buildings and most of the archaeological remains found in the modern city — a temple of Apollo, the agora, the acropolis — date to the Hellenistic era. The excavation uncovered a Hellenistic era necropolis.

The recovered artifacts are now being conserved at the Archaeological Museum of Nesebar. Some of the damaged objects will be repaired in preparation for an exhibition dedicated to the necropolis discoveries.