Console with a Grotesque Male, ca. 1910
Unknown maker
Limestone, 30 × 12 × 28 in. (76.2 × 30.5 × 71.1 cm)
Brooklyn Museum, New York City, gift of Anonymous Arts Recovery Society, 63.239.12
Photographer: Bruce M. White

This limestone console was salvaged from an unidentified building in New York City by the Anonymous Arts Recovery Society. Founded in 1958, the society sought to preserve ornamental features from buildings that were being demolished. Such efforts preceded the 1965 enactment of the New York City Landmarks Law and establishment of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, both of which protect the city’s architecturally, historically, and culturally significant buildings and sites today. Like the Indian sandstone fragment, which formerly adorned an architectural facade, this console has become heavily weathered. Having been exposed to the elements for many years, the surfaces of these objects are now reminiscent of romanticized sculptural ruins.