A late Roman marble mosaic of a lion, circa 4th-5th century AD, the multi-coloured composition on a white ground, preserving a lioness and her cub, the mother facing left, her head turned out to her right, with wide eyes intensely gazing outward, her tail extended, with a cub leaping and gazing upward at its mother with its mouth open, leaves and pink flowers in the field, 100 x 125cm Provenance: Private collection of Victor Aubrey Lownes III (April 17, 1928 - January 11, 2017). Lownes was an executive for HMH Publishing Company Inc., later known as Playboy Enterprises, from 1955 through the early 1980s. Soon after he met Hugh Hefner in 1954, Hefner founded Playboy magazine, and Lownes eventually joined his publishing company, serving as vice president. Lownes was a close confidant of Hefner and gained a reputation for dating Playboy Playmates. Lownes headed Playboy Europe and the UK Playboy Clubs from the mid-1960s until his dismissal in the early 1980s. Lownes oversaw Playboy Enterprises's move into casino gambling in the UK in the 1960s, which became Playboy's most successful business other than its publishing until the advent of cable television. He oversaw the most successful part of Hefner's attempt to diversify out of publishing and into motion pictures, hotels and casino gambling. During his time as head of Playboy Europe, he was Britain's highest paid executive, drawing a large salary and eventually becoming Playboy Enterprises's second biggest shareholder. Lownes is credited with creating Playboy Clubs in the United States. In 1963, Lownes asked Hefner to send him to London to open the first British Playboy Club. He placed an advertisement in The Times' personal columns that read: "American millionaire seeks a flat in the most fashionable part of London. Rents up to £100 a week." He found a house at 3 Montpellier Square, opposite Harrods which he rented for 75 guineas a week. He spent months in London working out how and where to open a club. Gambling had recently been legalized in the UK and Lownes realized there was an opportunity to add the attraction of a casino to the nightclub. A Playboy Club was opened in the heart of the capital, at 45 Park Lane overlooking Hyde Park, on July 1, 1966 and was an immediate success. It was nicknamed the "Hutch on the Park."[7] "UK One", as Lownes became known, easily fitted in with "Swinging London". Regular parties were thrown at his house; attendees included such London Playboy Club habitués as The Beatles, George Best, Warren Beatty, Michael Caine, Judy Garland, Sean Connery, Terry Southern, Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate. In 1967, Lownes moved to 1 Connaught Square, which had previously been the London residence of Mary Augusta Ward, a novelist of the late 19th and early 20th century. A massive Francis Bacon painting he acquired during this time was judged so hideous that it was exiled to hanging in the hall, while a grandfather clock inside the property was painted by Timothy Leary. Please refer to department for condition report