antefix

This antefix, valued at $97,425, is one of four that officials say were stolen from the Cerveteri Necropolis, a burial site outside of Rome, by an Italian looting network, 1994-1996.

Its gable wall is topped by an antefix cross with bifid branches.

It is an impressive round-fronted classic structure of gray stone in the Corinthian order, with a semicircular colonnade above the first story supporting a handsomely executed entablature with conspicuous antefixes about the cornice.

The compluvium also was ornamented with a row of triangular tiles called antefixes, on which a mask or some other object was moulded in relief.

The antefix has the breadth of a hole and one eighth, and the thickness of one hole.