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Evidence of G. Max Bernheimer’s greatest loves decorates the walls of his office overlooking Rockefeller Center: photographs of a recent family trip to Italy, a framed poster of a colossal roman sculpture, and of course, the season calendar for his beloved Boston Red Sox. As Libby Addington recently learned, the professional path of this International Head of Antiquities is a fascinating one…

Your interest in ancient art dates back to your childhood. So tell us, how does a young boy become fascinated with Egyptian mummies instead of baseball and toy fire engines?
Ancient art and baseball don’t have to be mutually exclusive—I’m a lifelong Boston Red Sox fanatic! But yes, art has always been part of my life. I come from an art dealing family that goes back five generations. My great-great-grandparents started an antiques business in Munich in 1864, and when my grandparents left Germany in 1939 they set up a modest antiques business in Cambridge, Massachusetts. That’s the environment I grew up in. Once I got my driver’s license, my grandparents asked me to work for them. I logged many hours cleaning and dusting display cases at their gallery. What I didn’t realize at the time was that all of this handling of objects was really the start of my art historical education.

Did you go on to study art in college?
I took an Introduction to Greek Art and Archaeology course during my first year at Clark University that totally captivated me. I then signed up for every class the University offered on the Ancient World, and also spent a semester abroad in Rome at the Intercollegiate Center for Classic Studies. It was a fantastic experience that catapulted my interest in the ancient—and also my love of Italian food and wine, which continues today. I followed this with graduate studies at Harvard University, where I wrote my thesis on ancient engraved gems. My grandmother probably first planted the seed for my interest in ancient jewelry—when I was in my teens, she gave me a Roman gem set in a modern gold ring, and it has been a pet field of mine ever since.

How did you transition from the family business to the auction world?
In 1992, when Christie’s set out to start an Antiquities department in New York, they got my name from a curator friend of mine at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. By that point, my grandparents were retired and I had taken over their gallery. They were fully supportive of my move, and I knew it was an incredible opportunity to combine my academic training and market experience.

In recent years, the issue of repatriation has garnered attention as institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Getty Museum have returned artifacts to their source countries. Where does the issue stand today, and what impact does this have on your collectors?
Provenance has always been important, and in light of recent repatriation issues, it has become paramount. In a way these issues have helped the auction business because of the transparency of our operations; buyers can have complete confidence when buying at auction. Everything we do is published, and source countries have the opportunity to review our catalogues long before the date of sale.

Does restoration help or hinder how a piece will perform at auction?
Accidental breaks are inevitable when you’re working with ancient art. There is no general rule about restoration; it is something that needs to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. For example, in June of 2002, we had a Greek marble head that was missing its nose. Although the head itself was beautiful, the eye immediately focused on the concavity at the center of the face. We advised the seller to have a new nose created. The restorer did an impeccable job, and the head sold for nearly double its low estimate.

To date, what would you say has been your career high?
There are so many! At the top of the list was our June 2000 sale of property from the legendary collector Elie Borowski. His collection had been sold ten years earlier to a Japanese Corporation to finance a private museum he was building in Jerusalem and we sold on behalf of the Corporation. Not only did many of the pieces sell to top institutions, but it was also a sale that established Christie’s as the world leader in the field of ancient art.

Tell me what I should know about the piece you’re holding.
This is a very fine example of a late Egyptian head of an official. It comes from Dynasty 30, which was the last native dynasty to rule before Alexander the Great. We know from the quality of the material and carving that this must have been a person of high rank. Private portraiture of this period always followed the lead of royal portraiture, and this example compares favorably to portraits of the Egyptian Pharaoh Nactanebo II. It is an idealized representation showing the official in a state of eternal youth and vigor. A number of these portrait heads are in museum collections in the U.S. and Europe, but very rarely do we see one of this quality and condition on the market.