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The warren Cup replica, argent massif, 4.4" high x 3.6" diam.

LESLIE-LOHMAN AQUIRES RARE REPLICA OF “THE WARREN CUP” FOR LLGAF’S PERMANENT COLLECTION

Through the good offices of a New York artist associated with the foundation Leslie-Lohman was put in touch with Thomas Hurd, a young American arts entrepreneur working out of London. Mr. Hurd was instrumental in persuading the last private owner of the astonishing---(and astonishingly beautiful)---ancient Roman goblet to allow 12 perfect replications of the heavy silver, homosexually themed drinking vessel to be produced in "argent massif". . . Below is Mr. Hurd's brief introduction to the cup and its history. . . Future articles will detail the story of Warren himself, one of the most extraordinary gay collectors of antiquities in the late 19th century.

— Charles Leslie

THE WARREN CUP: FINDING A PLACE IN HISTORY
By Thomas M. Hurd

The most extraordinary artifact of male-to-male sexuality to have survived from the ancient Roman Empire is a silver drinking vessel known as the Warren Cup. Deemed too outrageous for the public eye, it remained in obscurity for nearly a century after it was discovered in the late 1800s. That obscurity ended, however, in 1999 when the British Museum purchased the cup for ??1.8 million (US$2.7 million). Considered the most important acquisition by the British Museum in thirty years, the Warren Cup is now on permanent exhibition in the Greek and Roman department of the museum, where it can finally assume its rightful place in art history.

The evolution of the Warren Cup from esoteric curiosity to its present notoriety mirrors the changing social mores of the western world. The cup takes its name from E.P. Warren (1861-1928), heir to a paper manufacturing fortune, who acquired it shortly after its discovery. Warren was the preeminent collector of antiquities in his day. He spent most of his adult life in England where he felt he could more freely pursue the ancient ideals of pedagogy and love between men. In his own words he was "yearning for the renewal of Greek life and on the look out for affections - real affections - between my own sex". He published a collection of his own homoerotic poetry as well as a treatise entitled "In Defense of Uranian Love". The Warren Cup was not suitable for public display in Victorian England, however, and it would be almost 100 years before a museum dared to exhibit it. Sexuality did not become a viable subject for scholarly study until the post Stonewall era, at which time the Warren Cup became an object of international interest, culminating in 1999 with its purchase by the British Museum. This acquisition caused a sensation in the press, with photographs of the cup appearing in every major British newspaper. The Warren Cup's unique crossover potential was demonstrated by the fact that the most explicit images ever to be published in the mainstream media were depictions of sex between men. The Warren Cup's importance as an historical document and its beauty as a work of art allow it to transcend usual social boundaries.