Despite the objections of two governments and at least one renowned academic to the sale of antiquities by the Toledo Museum of Art, a live auction of the artifacts at Christie’s Auction House on Tuesday was held anyway.

The auction of 23 artifacts was completed in New York. Two pieces were not sold because offers did not meet the minimum bids.

According to the Christie’s website early today, the artifacts sold for more than $800,000 total, including the buyers’ premium. The Toledo museum will net about $600,000 after the premium is deducted, according to Christie’s guidelines.

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On all lots, Christie’s charges 25 percent of the hammer price up to and including a sale price of $150,000, 20 percent on that part of the hammer price over $150,000 and up to and including $3,000,000, and 12 percent of that part of the hammer price above $3,000,000, rules on the website stated.

An online auction of 43 additional antiquities from Egypt, Cyprus, Italy, and Greece, closes at noon today.

An ancient limestone head of a male votary from 6th Century B.C. that the Cyprus government had asked to remain at the Toledo Museum of Art rather than be sold, went for $55,000 at the auction, which took place in New York.

The sale has been questioned by Joan Connelly, a renowned art expert, nationally known archaeologist, winner of the MacArthur Foundation Genius Award, and professor of classics and art history at New York University.

The Toledo native told The Blade that viewing such items at the museum during her childhood inspired her to be an archaeologist, and added she is sickened by the idea of selling off the artifacts to private collectors.

On Tuesday, Ms. Connelly again weighed in against such sales.

“It is perhaps time for the TMA Board to take a long, hard look at its responsibilities, and its oversight of Museum operations. Deaccession is not a practice of first-tier museums, like TMA.

“In this case, Toledo has suffered not only the loss of irreplaceable objects, but loss of its patrimony. Several of the sold objects were gifts from and acquired during the tenure of Edward Drummond Libbey, who was the museum’s founder and principal benefactor, and also its first president. Libbey was, of course, also the force of the glass industry in Toledo, truly the man who made Toledo the Glass City,” she said .

“So with the disposal of his gifts, Toledo lost important links to its 19 th century industrial past — a golden age of the city. All of this is probably lost on those without deep connections to Toledo,’’ she said.

The museum sold the items after a two-year process in which a committee of art experts researched and reviewed the museum’s antiquities collection. The money the museum makes on the artifacts goes into its acquisition fund to acquire new pieces for its collection.

The Egyptian and Cyprus governments had asked that the auction be postponed — Egypt wanted its pieces returned and Cyprus asked the museum to consider keeping its pieces in its collection.

Cyprus Ambassador Leonidas Pantelides emailed a letter Monday evening to museum director Brian Kennedy, requesting they discuss the issue.

“It is my deepest concern that the pieces up for auction may disappear into private collections and never surface again,” he wrote. The ambassador offered to work with the museum to offer annual fund-raisers or events with expert archaeologists.

Museum director Brian Kennedy, who responded to the letter before the auction, said the Cypriot leader had not been displayed at the museum for several decades, and that a similar example would remain in the museum’s collection .

Deaccessioning — the act of permanently removing pieces from a museum through sales so that new pieces can be acquired — is a common practice at U.S. private institutions, and is guided by the guidelines of the Association of Art Museum Directors, the American Alliance of Museums, and the International Council on Museums.

“With the exception of glass, the Toledo Museum of Art does not seek to be comprehensive in any collecting area; the museum’s focus is on great works of art across time and geography,” Mr. Kennedy wrote.

Neither Mr. Kennedy nor Mr. Pantelides were available for comment on the live auction results Tuesday.

Two items — an Egyptian terracotta offering tray from between 2055-1985 B.C., and a Cypriot bronze lamp stand from between 600 and 500 B.C. — did not meet the minimum sale prices and were not sold. A Christie’s spokesman said it was unknown if those two items would return to the museum or be sold at another time .

An Egyptian limestone fragment from the Early 26th Dynasty sold for $130,000, and two Egyptian bronze figures, a falcon from the Late Period to Ptolemaic Period and a cat from the Ptolemaic Period, sold for $60,000 and $65,000, respectively.

Christie’s does not release the names of individuals or institutions that purchased the pieces unless the buyer gives permission, per confidentiality agreements, a spokesman said. Two of the items — an Attic black-figured fragmentary band cup from 520 B.C. that sold for $19,000, and an Egyptian painted wood Shabti, a funeral figurine, from between 1295 and 1186 B.C., that sold for $32,000 — were purchased by U.S. institutions.

The remainder were sold to either private individuals or a trade, for example, a gallery, according to Christie’s. Private individuals do sometimes purchase pieces at auction on behalf of institutions, the spokesman added.

Contact Roberta Gedert at: rgedert@theblade.com or 419-724-6075 or on Twitter @RoGedert.

First Published October 26, 2016, 4:09 a.m.