In 1830, a French farmer had just this happen while he plowed a newly purchased field in rural Normandy, unearthing a hoard of some of the finest Roman silver to survive from antiquity. Kenneth Lapatin, curator of the exhibition Ancient Luxury and the Roman Silver Treasure from Berthouville will examine this rare cache in a lecture on Thursday, April 16 at 7:30pm at the Getty Villa Auditorium. The hoard of gilt-silver has been conserved and studied at the Getty Villa for the past four years, and has never been seen outside of Paris before.
Lapatin, who has a particular interest in the luxury arts of Greece and Rome, will talk about what the silver, which is dedicated to Mercury, the Roman god of travel, reveals about religion, culture, and technology. “There are so many exciting aspects of this hoard: we have objects of the finest quality, which are rarely preserved, as precious metals were regularly melted down for reuse,” he said. “And this hoard was dedicated by a wide variety of individuals: men, women, Romans, locals, free-born and ex-slaves.” In addition to the current exhibition on view at the Getty Villa, he co-curated Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World, which recently opened at the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, Italy and will open at the Getty Center in July 2015, followed by the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. in December 2015.
Tickets are free, but require a reservation.