Ancient Egyptian wooden figure on sale at Christie’s

A 4,000-year-old wooden sculpture of an Ancient Egyptian noblewoman is going on offer at Christie’s 6 December. The 71 cm tall sculpture is remarkably preserved due to desert drought and dates back to the third millennium BC, known as the Age of the Pyramids. The elite of that period commissioned works such as this representing themselves, which would then be placed in their tombs as receptacles of the soul. An antiquities specialist at Christie’s in London describes the piece, which she says inspired modern expressionist art when it was owned by Dutch artist Johannes Anton ‘John’ Rädecker. (watch, runtime: 2:12)