Art dealer Helen Fioratti and her husband, Nereo, purchased the mosaic from an aristocratic Italian family in the 1960s and used it as a coffee table in their Manhattan apartment for some 45 years.

A New York City couple unknowingly used a mosaic commissioned by Caligula as a coffee table for 45 years. The mosaic had disappeared from Italy in 1944 when the Nazis withdrew from the country.