A wonderful example of Hellenistic Realism, this bronze sculpture depicts a street dancer who appears to be suffering from some type of deformity or illness. We see the artist taking extreme care to capture the details.. We can see clearly the energetic movements of the dancer. It is difficult to gauge  the age of the dancer, but from the figure’s extreme thinness and facial features, we surmise that we are observing a man who is  getting on in years.

Ali and Hicham Aboutaam invite you to examine more examples from their catalogue, “Exotics of the Classical World.”

For example, Ali and Hicham Aboutaam published a catalog entitled “Exotics of the Classical World.”

Within this catalog 40 separate pieces are discussed in depth in English, with a full French translation of each description available in an appendix at the back.

The premise of this collection is a counterpoint to what has come to be accepted as the theme of Greco-Roman antiquities and the neo-classical movement of the 19th century. In opposition to the traditional notion of the ‘Greek-Roman’ ideal of beauty, idealism, elegance and nobility, the “Exotics” collection point to a different standard, that of the unusual, strange, picturesque, and even ugly, at times.

Delve into the world of “Exotics” with the Aboutaam brothers, and get a taste of something different.

Guennol Lioness

“Compared to contemporary art” says Hicham Aboutaam of Phoenix Ancient Art, “antiquities are terribly undervalued.”  He made this remark after the sale at Sotheby’s in New York of a three-inch-tall ancient limestone sculpture of a lioness for $57.2 million in December 2007. The statue, known as the Guennol Lioness, is 5,000 years old and originates from Mesopotamia, where it was discovered not far from Baghdad in the early part of the 20th century by archeologist Sir Leonard Woolley. The winning price almost doubled the previous high that had been paid for a sculpture, and was three times the pre-sale estimate of the piece’s value.