THE NORTH RIDING PROJECT

Blessed with excess wealth, Amotan proceeded to build a lavish collection of artefacts deriving from the lengths and breadths of the ancient world.  The freedman’s one hundred fabled treasures – commissions, copies, fakes, purchases and plunder – were brought together on board a colossal ship, the Apistos (translates from Koine Greek as the ‘Unbelievable’), which was destined for a temple purpose-built by the collector.  Yet the vessel foundered, consigning its hoard to the realm of myth and spawning myriad permutations of this story of ambition and avarice, splendour and hubris.

Hirst/Treasures