[ALBSA-Info] London Times

[Agron Alibali]

The Times (London) 

April 3, 2001, Tuesday 

SECTION: Features 

Two heads of Livia are better than one 

Norman Hammond 




LIVIA, wife of the Roman Emperor Augustus, has poked
her head into the public arena yet again. Only a few
months after a marble portrait of the murderous
matriarch, portrayed on television in I, Claudius by
Sian Phillips, was returned from Oxford to its home in
Croatia, another and similar head has been rescued
from the stolen-art market and taken back to Albania. 

The Albanian head, in superb condition apart from a
broken nose, was found in the theatre of Butrint, on
the southern coast opposite Corfu, during excavations
70 years ago. "The statue was one of six which had
formed an imperial portrait group in a grand stage
building," said Professor Richard Hodges, who is
directing new research at the site. 

The head was stolen from the Butrint museum in 1991,
during the chaos that accompanied the fall of Ramez
Alia, the last Communist dictator of Albania. It was
apparently smuggled to Greece and then to Switzerland,
Professor Hodges said, and purchased by Robert Hecht,
a New York art dealer. 

When he offered it for sale in his catalogue in 1995,
the head was recognised by American scholars, and Mr
Hecht declared his willingness to return it. It was
recently flown back to Tirana, where it will stay in
the Institute of Archaeology's museum until the
Butrint museum has been renovated and rendered secure.


Ironically, the recent return of another head of Livia
from the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford to Narona in
Croatia, where it was found more than a century ago,
and acquired by Sir Arthur Evans in exchange for his
hat (The Times, October 25 and November 22, 2000), has
led to renewed mystery about how many Livias there
were at the site. Professor Emilio Marin found a torso
in his recent excavations at Narona which he
identified as the missing body of the Oxford head: the
Ashmolean Museum, learning of the discovery from The
Times, promptly offered to give the head back. 

It was returned to Croatia late last year, but with
the two pieces back together, it became clear that the
head did not quite fit: although the chronology, style
and type of marble were all the same, the neck was too
thin to fit the socket on the body. Also, Professor
Marin now notes, the mantle on the Oxford head was
drawn closely in on both sides, while none of the
female bodies found at Narona so far shows such a
feature. 

There seem to have been at least two statues of Livia
at Narona. The head for Professor Marin's torso and
the body that fits the Oxford head are still missing.
Until the latter shows up, if it ever does, Professor
Marin has declared himself willing to reciprocate
Oxford's courtesy, and return Livia's head to the
Ashmolean, "as the ambassador of Narona". 

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