... AND HERE'S THE BATHTUB
FOR BATHING WITH ANTINOUS
FLAMEN ANTONYUS loves the Budapest Fine Arts Museum's exhibition BENE LAVA on Roman Bath culture, because he is in the midst of a very intense cycle of SACRED BATHING, partly in celebration of the INUNDATION OF THE NILE.
The Budapest exhibition reminds us of the news story about the discovery of a Hadrian-era bathtub at an antiques shop in Spain.
The news story fits in well with the one earlier this month about the MODERN VISIGOTHS stripping the Roman Forum bare of antiquities by stealing bits and pieces to take home as "souvenirs." They'll steal everything, including the kitchen sink — and even the bathtub!
Imagine browsing through an antiques shop and finding a Hadrian Era Bathtub. Perhaps the Divine Hadrian bathed in this very tub — WITH Antinous.
The story made headlines across Europe when Italian police recovered a valuable Roman-era marble bathtub stolen from Italy after spotting it by chance in a Barcelona antique dealership.
The officers, specialists in stolen artwork, were in the Spanish Mediterranean port city on other business when they stumbled across their find, which had been stolen from the garden of a villa in Rome in 2005.
The owner of the antique dealership said he thought the oval-shaped bathtub, was a modern copy of an antique.
He said he had bought it at the end of 2005 for $4,500 from another dealer and had it on sale for a mere $9,000.
In fact the bathtub, which dates back to the era of in the 2nd Century AD, is worth a cool $450,000.
The only other surviving example is on display at the Vatican Museum (shown above).
Spanish police believe the bathtub, which weights half a ton, was transported to Spain by sea, most likely hidden in a shipping container.
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