Antiquities and Ancient Art

Important Group of Ancient Egyptian Pottery Discovered Undocumented in UK Museum Closet

A request from an assistant keeper in the Department of Ancient Egypt at the British Museum has resulted in a 4,000-year-old discovery at Hawick Museum, according to the Scottish Borders Council.

A box of pottery, long-untouched and undocumented, has turned out to contain 'very important', numbered pottery, much of it dating from the Egyptian Middle Kingdom of 2040-1750 BC. The items were collected by the Egyptologist John Garstang at Esna, Upper Egypt, in 1905/6. The numbers on the pots refer to the tombs they were found in, making them valuable research tools. The pottery came to light after an assistant keeper in the Department of Ancient Egypt and the Sudan at the British Museum sent Hawick Museum a request for information on Ancient Egyptian collections held by local museums. Hawick Museum staff had suspected the pottery to be Egyptian but, until now, lacked written confirmation.

The discovery brings the Ancient Egyptian collection at Hawick Museum to more than 50 items. The British Museum has undertaken to date and explain the collection, which will be on display next year.

Shona Sinclair, Curator of Hawick Museum, said, "This is the final chapter in a long mystery story. We were always pretty sure that the pots were from Ancient Eqypt, but we had no idea they held such archaeological significance."

English archaeologist John Garstang (1876-1956) served as WM Flinders Petrie's field assistant in Egypt in 1899, and became Emeritus Professor at the University of Liverpool.

Information on the newly identified artefacts will be included in the Cornucopia website developed by the British Museum and the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology with funding from the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council.  The collection will also appear on a forthcoming website called Accessing Virtual Egypt, developed from Cornucopia.

It's Official: The Met Announces the Return of Some Greek Antiquities to Italy

The Metropolitan Museum of Art today signed an agreement in Rome that formalizes the transfer of title to six antiquities—including a group of 16 Hellenistic silver pieces—to Italy.

In exchange, the Italian Culture Ministry has officially agreed that the Metropolitan may keep on view the 2,500-year-old Attic krater by the potter Euxitheos and the painter Euphronios until January 2008, some nine months after the scheduled April 2007 opening of the Museum's new galleries for Etruscan, Hellenistic, and Roman art. The collection of Hellenistic silver will remain at the Metropolitan until 2010 in a newly designed treasury.

The remaining objects—which, as in the case of the krater and silver, the agreement stipulates were acquired by the Museum in good faith—will be returned to Italy as expeditiously as possible. The Ministry has agreed to provide the Metropolitan with long-term future loans—of up to four years each, as Italian law allows—of works of art of equivalent beauty and importance to the objects being returned. The loans will be chosen from a list of objects submitted by the Metropolitan or by others, with joint approval.

The agreement was signed today by Philippe de Montebello, Director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and, for Italy: Giuseppe Proietti, representing the Ministry of Culture; Francesco Sicilia, also representing the ministry; and Alessandro Pagano, representing the Culture Ministry of Sicily.

The works of art covered in the agreement are:

• Euphronios krater, ca. 515 B.C. (MMA accession number 1972.11.10)
• Hellenistic silver collection, 3rd century B.C. (1981.11.15-22; 1982.7-13; 1984.11.3)
• Laconian kylix, 6th century B.C. (1999.527)
• Red-figured Apulian Dinos, 340-320 B.C. (1984.11.7)
• Red-figured psykter decorated with horsemen, ca. 520 B.C. (1996.250)
• Red-figured Attic amphora by the Berlin painter, ca. 490 B.C. (1985.11.5)

Commented Mr. de Montebello: "It is with a recognition of its institutional responsibility—coupled with the highest hopes for continued, mutually beneficial relationships with our many colleagues in Italy—that the Metropolitan has concluded these negotiations, which affirm a solution that it first proposed in Rome in November. This is the appropriate solution to a complex problem, which redresses past improprieties in the acquisitions process through a highly equitable arrangement.

"The Met is particularly gratified that, through this agreement, its millions of annual visitors will continue to see comparably great works of ancient art on long-term loan from Italy to this institution."

Complex Issues of Cultural Patrimony Explored in New Book by Kate Gibbon

The February issue of Art and Auction magazine contains a detailed review of the recently published book entitled Who Owns the Past? edited by Kate Fitz Gibbon. The review by Hugh Eakin is worth the read as it outlines a cogent analysis of the positions raised by contributors (including dealers, lawyers, museum experts, collectors) to the book.

"Surely something is awry in our system of acquiring and displaying the precious remains of ancient civilizations when the most common analogy to describe it is the international drug mafia," writes the reviewer to provide context for the issued raised in the book. "Dealers and collectors -- the central cogs in this rarefied sector of the art market -- are likened by governments and the press to rapacious gangsters and slavering addicts who will spare no effort to get their hands on ancient troves."

Who Owns the Past is a collection of essays that attempts to provide balance to the skewed press coverage of late and to provide a voice to those whose reasoned approaches to the licit antiquities market have been drowned by the torrent of salacious headlines. Eakin calls the book "an informative tour d'horizon of the cultural property debate and some of the broader legal and philosophical underpinnings."

The reviewer states that "One of the ways collectors and museums can claim the higher moral ground is to put collecting into perspective with other kinds of threats to the archaeological record. Looters with metal detectors and electric tools rampaging through tombs may be the subject of graphic tales, but they are only part of the problem. From Italy to Egypt to China, large-scale infrastructural projects -- subways and dams in particular -- have destroyed huge swaths of buried cultural patrimony that can never be recovered. The Turkish government's flooding of Zeugma, a 2,000-year-old Roman city with some of the world's best mosaics, is a case in point. The archaeological community, dependent on the goodwill of the same governments to continue its work, is often unwilling to take action."

Hopefully the book will open the door to much needed further debate between all parties and interests. Ultimately sensible dialog, not witch hunts and media circuses disguised as trials, will lead to rational solutions that are truly in the common good. Perhaps Gibbon's book is a step in this direction.

British Museum Pays Record £357,000 for Gold Anglo-Saxon Coin but Fumes at Process

The acquisition by the British Museum last week of an exquisite Anglo-Saxon gold coin found by a metal detectorist set a new record price of £357,832 (approx $650,000) for a British coin but also left the British Museum fuming.

The Anglo-Saxon coin, comprised of more than 85% gold and weighing 4.33g, shows no signs of wear and was minted between 805-810 AD during the rule of Coenwulf who lorded over Mercia, East Anglia, and Kent. The coin’s rarity is due to its perfect quality and the fact that it is thought to be the earliest gold coin in the name of an English ruler intended as circulating currency.

The coin borrows a Roman-style portrait and inscription of the king on the obverse, but bears an intriguing inscription DE VICO LVNDONIAE (from the trading place of London) on the reverse.

The coin was found a few inches below the surface of a public footpath by a metal detecting hobbyist.  The find led to the discovery of a nearby Anglo-Saxon marketplace whose location has not yet been revealed as it undergoes additional excavation.

The purchase of the coin was bittersweet for the British Museum, which had been bidding on the object when it was put up for sale at a UK auction in October 2004. The coin was estimated to bring £150,000, and the BM dropped out below £200,000, with the coin eventually selling to an American dealer for £230,000. When the dealer attempted to export the coin, the BM was granted a temporary export stay to enable it to raise enough money to buy the object by matching the “market price”. The dealer revealed that he had a client for the coin and the market price that needed to be matched was £357,000, not the £230,000.

Despite protestation, the BM paid the amount and the coin now proudly joins the museum’s impeccable holdings. While the museum has commented publicly that it believes the matching price methodology in this instance exploited a loophole in the system, it seems clear that without some way of accounting for an object’s value in the aftermarket, governmental institutions would always enjoy a significant price advantage in purchasing objects using the export stay option. For more, see the article in the UK's Daily Telegraph.

More Observations on the New & Improved Getty Villa Museum

The re-opening of the Getty continues getting loads of press on everything from Malibu neighbors complaining of increased traffic to laments about the long wait for tickets. However, a refreshingly positive article by Robert Pincus today focuses on the superb renovations and the experience of wanding the newly refurbed galleries. Here is an excerpt...

"Now, with the reopening of the Getty's older site, it can boast an improved showcase for ancient art. The merits of the changes by architects Rodolfo Machado and Jorge Silvetti to the overall site are already being debated. Yet one thing seems clear: They have enhanced the building as a place for art, with the concentration on ancient art, the vast increase in natural light and the intelligent organization.

"When the Malibu museum housed everything from ancient statues to European paintings to photography, it seemed like a clutter box. Now, the displays in its 28 galleries are spacious and the installations elegant. The signage allows you to identify each object by a tiny image rather than a number or letter and cleanly highlights its place on a timeline.

"It's safe to say that nowadays, most people aren't fluent in Greek and Roman history or in the art of either culture. Without condescending to the viewer, the information in the galleries enhances our experience of it.

"Take the gallery devoted to bronze artifacts. They possess a burnished greenish patina that is elegant. But we're reminded that this isn't the color they displayed when they were in use by affluent Greeks or Romans. They were golden in hue.

"Among the things in bronze were storage jars, though that term may conjure up images of vessels stuffed in corners of ancient homes. Not so with some of the stunning examples like "Storage Jar With a Female Figure," dating from 50 to 1 B.C. They housed the wine for dinner parties.  Click to read the full article.

Important Romano-Celtic Bronze 'Pan' Found by Metal Detectorists Goes on Display

A nationally historical Roman artefact called the Staffordshire Moorlands Patera is now on diplay at the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent, England, until December 24, 2006. "The Pan" as it is commonly known was discovered in the Staffordshire Moorlands in 2003 by metal detectorists and was acquired and joint owned by the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, The British Museum and Tullie House Museum in Carlisle; its purchase was generously supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. It was valued at 100,000 pounds sterling (approx $180,000).

The Pan is thought to be over 1800 years old, and despite loosing its handle and base is well preserved. The Pan was made as a functional vessel and as a 'souvenir' of Hadrian's Wall. The Pan is unique as it has Celtic styled engravings and the names of fortresses positioned on Hadrian's Wall engraved inside the rim of the pan. The Pan is thought to be a highly useful in telling us more about Hadrian's Wall and may eventually provide us with the Roman name for Hadrian's Wall.

The joint ownership is groundbreaking for the museum as it is the first time an acquisition of this kind has been arranged, it is highly important to the City Centre Museum as it enables the public to see such an historically important artefact, which was found locally and will be on display at the Museum throughout 2006 and then nationally around the UK from 2007.

"The joint acquisition of the Staffordshire Moorlands Pan by the three museums is truly trail-blazing. It marks a new era in co-operation between National and regional museums and will enable this enormously significant national treasure to be seen and enjoyed by a large number of people at all three venues. We hope that this will be the first of many such partnerships," said Head of Museums Ian Lawley.

Three Mummies Discovered in Yemen to Undergo Scientific Analysis

Three mummies have been discovered in the Al-Jawf governorate in Yemen and have been ordered to undergo scientific analysis by the Minister of Culture and Tourism, Khalid Al-Rowaishan.

According to the Yemen Observer, archeological specialists were appointed on January 30 to examine the ancient bodies to provide further clues as to their age and history. The minister, who ordered that the fragile relics should be stored safely in the National Museum in Sana’a while the research is carried out, expressed his gratitude to the citizens who handed them over. He praised the patriotic sense of the Yemeni citizens, and the care that they had taken to preserve the heritage, civilization and history of Yemen. Click for more on the story plus photos.