Ali Aboutaam

Today, the market is showing an exciting growing interest in antiques. As Hicham Aboutaam explains, “There are antiquities available for purchase that are considered among the finest five in the world. Compare that to an Impressionist painting or the Old Masters, where the top 20 or 30 are off the market – in public institutions – and it’s obvious why there’s so much interest in antiquities.”

There is a great deal of opportunity with antiques, and a chance that some of the world’s most amazing antiques could still become for sale. The Vatican, for instance, has a massive store of antiques in their possession. Ali Aboutaam, as another example, recently returned from a visit to a Delaware family that has antiques simply sitting in their warehouse.

This all makes for exciting opportunities in the ever-changing field of antiquities.

In an amazing synthesis of the extraordinarily old with the most up-to-the-minute new, Hicham and Ali Aboutaam of Phoenix Ancient Art launched their landmark web site, E-tiquities. Click your way over to E-tiquities and get a gander of the most beautiful objects which have been cherished and preserved for thousands of years until our day. You are more than welcome to just browse, since one of the goals of this unique web-site is to open up the world of ancient art to a broader audience, to educate them about art from the deep past, and to hopefully interest them to belong to this special club of people who, more than owning the precious objects, become guardians of them for the future.

Even computer geeks might want to participate in the chain of ownership through the millennia, acknowledging that not everything is measured in nanoseconds, or gets obsolete in 5 years time.

The Aboutaam brothers Ali and Hicham of Phoenix Ancient Art offer a beautiful marriage ring under the category of “jewels and gemstones.” This object is a fascinating solid gold ring from the Byzantine epic. Amazing detail sets this ring off as an exquisite example of the survival of a pagan Roman custom into the context of the recently developed Christian religion.

Depicting the busts of a bride and groom bisected by a cross, a bust of Christ hovers above them with the inscription “BEOY OMONOIA” which is Greek for “concord in God”  placed above and below. The groom’s figure is engraved with an oval-shaped brooch clasping his flounced cloak closed. The bride is adorned with pearl earrings and a matching pearl collar around her neck.

Roman marriage contracts were customarily signed in front of the Emperor’s image, but the Byzantines chritianized this practice by switching the head of Christ for that of the Emperor, as seen is the coin which is approximately 1,500 years old.

Park Avenue Armory

Participating for the third consecutive year, Phoenix Ancient Art is anticipating the most successful representation in the 2009 International Fine Art and Antique Dealers Show. This fair featuring more than 60 high-end art dealerships is being organized by impresarios Brian and Anna Haughton of England. Among the huge variety of artworks and objects of interest will be Egyptian sculptures, African masks, Islamic artworks, jewelry, silver, rugs, clocks, paintings old and new, and other genres strange, rare and wonderful.

Ali and Hicham Aboutaam will be anchoring their booth at position E2 at the Park Avenue Armory, with a larger than life sculpture, carved in green basalt, of a muscular man’s torso, from the Roman period.

Phoenix will be featuring many more representatives from their wide ranging collection. For convenience and interest’s sake the Aboutaams will be publishing a catalog of their objects available at the fair. The catalogue will be available at the opening of the show.

The show will take place from October 16th until the 22nd. The Aboutaams urge you to come on down and be swept away by the incredible variety and beauty of artwork from the ancient world.

Ali Aboutaam and Hicham Aboutaam are the brother team of Phoenix Ancient Art who welcome you on a journey into the fascinating world of ancient civilization. Stepping into either of the art galleries of Phoenix Ancient Art, located in New York and Geneva, is like embarking on a journey through the ages, as you observe antiquities dating back thousands of years.

The world of ancient art is our window onto the world and the civilizations that populated it prior to the birth of our modern cultures and societies. Phoenix Ancient Art, through Ali and Hicham Aboutaam, has brought the past alive at their galleries, which means that even the general public is able to benefit from the finds and artefacts that have often been the sole domain of archaeologists and art fanatics. When it comes to art displays and galleries, as well as art dealership in antiquities, the Aboutaam family is the one address you must visit!

Pheonix Ancient Art, under the proprietorship of Ali and Hicham Aboutaam has a wide variety of ancient works of art, some depicting  themes which are more common or that we are used to from modern artistic styles. One of the more unusual or less understood themes in ancient art is that of the “grotesque.”

The archeological term “grotesque” is used to denote a distinct and important class of objects. These artifacts are usually diminutive, and vary widely in their artistic quality. The “grotesques” exploit physical deformities in the subject matter for the enjoyment of the observers. The ancient artisan frequently exaggerated to the point of caricature the maladies depicted in their subjects.

This particular style was developed in areas such as Asia Minor (Smyrna) and in Egypt (Alexandria). However the popularity of the grotesque style spread throughout the entire Mediterranean during the Hellenistic and Roman Periods.

The subjects of the grotesques varied widely and could include men, on a rare occasion women and/or children, old men, dwarves, obese, emaciated and Africans.

Seen here is a wonderful example of a small statue from the Hellenistic Period. It dates for the 1st century B.C.E. until the 1st century A.D. The statue is most likely a depiction of old man with a domed, bald head; deeply lined face; emaciated back where you can even count the ribs and vertebrae; and frail, thin arms.

Ali Aboutaam and his brother Hicham are happy to present to the public on behalf of Phoenix Ancient Art amazing objects of beauty from the ancient world. Among the many pieces is an idol made from marble originating from the Anatolian world.

Dating from between the 6th and 4th millennium B.C.E. this statuette is 10.8 cm high and in an excellent state of preservation. The sculpture is a simplified representation of the human form, with only the head and arms clearly stated. The face is pointed upwards and the eyes and mouth are merely incisions of straight lines. The nose is a delicate bump and the arms are placed over the belly, without touching, without any indication of hands.

Anatolia is the geographic area where present day Turkey is. The word Anatolia comes from the Greek, meaning “east” or more literally “sunrise.”

The latest effort from  Hicham and Ali  Aboutaam,brothers and co-owners of Phoenix Ancient Art, to make the world of collecting antiquities accessible to the widest possible range of people is their flagship web-site e-tiquities.

Opened for business as of May 1st, 2009, e-tiquities offers antiquities for sale or bidding some of the most beautiful, rare and historical artifacts in the most convenient way possible. From the comfort of your computer you can gaze at and admire some of the world’s most magnificent examples of art from as long ago as Neolithic times, around the 6th millennium B.C.E. and from as wide an area as the Mediterranean Basin spanning in the west from Spain and Portugal to the Indus Valley where modern Pakistan is now, in the east.

Prices range from $500 and can go as high as $25,000. Some of the ancient cultures represented by the objects in the virtual gallery are Greek, Roman, Byzantium, Islamic, and a large selection of others.

New York Gallery

Ali Aboutaam, along with his brother Hicham, are the proprietors of the renowned ancient art dealership Phoenix Ancient Art. Located at the two hubs of the international art trade, New York and Geneva, Phoenix Ancient Art has earned a stellar reputation as one of the world’s leading sellers of rare and outstanding antiquities.

The collection is comprised of examples of artwork spanning the entire foundation of Western Civilization, including: Mesopotamia, the Near East, Egypt, Central Europe, Northern Europe, the Balkans, Eurasia, Southwest Asia, the Steppes, the Greek World, the Roman Empire, Byzantium, Christian, Islamic, and European Dark (Middle) Ages.
In addition to the huge chronological sweep which Phoenix Ancient Art showcases there is also a wide geographic range from as far west as the Iberian Peninsula to the eastern reaches of the Indus River Valley where India’s first major civilization prospered, where present day Pakistan is now.