The 3000-year-old Dacian gold bracelet auctioned during the September 17 event at the Cesianu-Racoviță Palace in Bucharest will be exhibited at the Brukenthal National Museum in Sibiu, the A10 by Artmark auction house announced.

The spectacular piece of jewelry was purchased for EUR 35,000 (from a starting price of EUR 7,000) by an art and history collector who wanted to keep it on display in a museum institution. 

Thus, after the first meeting with the public at the Artmark Galleries exhibition, the antique bracelet will now join the permanent exhibition of Brukenthal Museum’s history section.

“We gladly received the proposal of the A10 by Artmark Auction House to exhibit, through the generosity of the anonymous buyer, the Dacian bracelet purchased at the auction on September 17. […] We are happy that there are collectors, as it happened in this case, who, when they acquire an important piece like this Dacian bracelet, want to display it for a period of time in a museum so that the general public can see it,” said Dr. Alexandru Constantin Chituță, director of the Brukenthal National Museum.

“We will soon announce the date from which this bracelet can be visited in Sibiu. We are preparing for the piece to be displayed at Brukenthal in a distinct exhibition mode, together with texts and data about it and provenance,” he added.

The Dacian bracelet comes from the village of Costești, Argeș county, and has been passed down through a private collection for six generations on the maternal line. According to family accounts, Ilie and Rada Neacșu left it to their daughter, Catrina Caterina, who then bequeathed it to her daughter, Catrina Ioana, the great-grandmother of the current owner. 

The bracelet is known in the specialized literature, documented through the publication in 2014 of the Archaeological Repertory of Argeș County. This artifact represents a rare discovery for the geographic region of Muntenia and the reference chronological period, especially since no other direct analogies are known for the current territory of Romania. 

The gold bracelet falls into the category of jewelry with a practical role. This particular piece was part of the adornments associated with the elite of the societies that preceded the Geto-Dacian era on the current territory of Romania, both male and female.

irina.marica@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Artmark)