1st-3rd century AD. A hollow-formed life-size bronze right foot and ankle from a statue of a god, goddess, hero, boy or an athlete; fine detailing to the foot and toes; ancient rectangular repair panel to the upper face; mounted on a custom-made stand. See Reinach, S., 'Hermaphrodite: Statuette de bronze de la collection du Mis de Luppé' in Revue archéologique Volume 32, 1898, pp.321-336; Rolland, H., Bronzes Antiques de Haute Provence, Paris, 1965, item 218, for similar fragment; Deiss, J.J., Herculaneum: Italy's Buried Treasure, New York, 1985; Various, Small bronze sculpture from the Ancient World, Malibu, 1990; Blix, G., From Paris to Pompeii: French Romanticism and the Cultural Politics of Archaeology, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009; Kleiner, F.S., A history of Roman art, Wadsworth, 2010; Cooley, A.E., Cooley, M.G.L., Pompeii and Herculaneum, New York, 2014.2.3 kg, 29cm including stand (11 1/2"). Property of a London gentleman; acquired on the London art market in the 2000s; accompanied by an expertise by Dr Raffaele D’Amato; this lot has been checked against the Interpol database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by AIAD certificate number no. 10296-168464. The thin proportions of the calf could suggest that the statue was that of a boy, a young god or goddess. One of the possible candidates could be Eros, the god of love, based on the Eros de Pavlovsk showing a similar foot position. The position of the foot offered here resembles the statue of goddess Roma in the Getty Museum (inv. 84.AB.671"). Studies on the Getty statue have shown a wax sheet that was applied to the underside of the already cast parts and around the bronze nub that formed the upper part of the proper leg, sealing the opening into the figure. [A video of this lot is available to view on TimeLine Auctions website.]