The Games of the XVII Olympiad Gold Medal
Rome 1960

Awarded for the 400m men's freestyle swimming final race held on 31 August 1960.

From 1928 to 1968, the medals for the Summer Olympic Games were identical, depicting a design first used for medals awarded at the Games of the IX Olympiad (Amsterdam 1928), created by Florentine artist Giuseppe Cassioli (1865-1942) and chosen after a competition organised by the International Olympic Committee.

Exceptionally, for the Games in Rome, the obverse and the reverse of the medal were inverted. The obverse embossed with an Olympic champion carried in triumph by the crowd, with the Olympic stadium in the background and the reverse embossed with the goddess of victory, holding a palm in her left hand and a winner’s crown in her right. The reverse also embossed with the specific inscription 'GIOCHI DELLA | XVII OLIMPIADE | ROMA MCMLX' and to the circumference with 'Stab. Artistici Fiorentini - Firenze' for the name of the mint, Stabilimenti Artistici Fiorentini.

The medals for these Games were set in a circle of bronze, featuring a laurel wreath and inscribed 'NUOTO', and completed by a chain comprising 20 links designed as paired laurel leaves and berries and one smaller link embossed with a flower.

Gilt silver and bronze
218 grams; medal diameter 54mm; chain length 417mm

• Lot Sold $80,000 (Hammer Price)
• $98,182 (Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium)

Provenance

Murray Rose AM, Sydney
The Estate of the Late Murray Rose AM, Sydney

Exhibited

National Sports Museum, Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne, 1987 - 21 September 2020

Literature

Murray Rose, Life is Worth Swimming, Arbon Publishing, Sydney, 2013, pp. 176, 194 (illustrated)