Tag: Met

New York’s Met Returns Looted Morgantina Treasure to Italy

It’s not often that stories of looting have a happy ending, but at the weekend a collection of illegally excavated silverware from the third century BC went on display for the first time back in their home-country of Italy. The treasure of Morgantina, as the collection is known, has been returned to Rome by New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it has been housed since 1982.

How the pieces got to the Met is a dramatic and nebulous story of illegal antiquities smuggling and dodgy dealing. American antiquities dealer Robert Hecht sold the pieces to the Met in two batches in 1981 and 1982 for a total sum of $2.7 million. He is now on trial in Rome for his part in the scandal. In other cases related to looted antiquities, Marion True, former curator of the Getty museum in California, is also defending charges brought by the Italian government of conspiracy in trafficking, while Italian art dealer Giacomo Medici has been sentenced to eight years in prison for his role in trafficking.

Morgantina’s Treasure and Destruction

The Morgantina collection consists of 16 pieces of intricately-worked silver objects, some gilded, many of which would have been used at the banquet table. They include two large bowls for mixing wine, honey and spices, three drinking bowls with embossed and gilded patterns inside, a two-handled silver cup for drinking, a small silver altar, a pair of silver horns that may have been attached to a helmet, a ladle and small boxes with beautiful bas-relief lids depicting a woman and a child.

The items weren’t all made by the same artist, which suggests they had been collected over time. They may have been hidden from plunderers during one of the periods of chaos at Morgantina.

Although today there is little to see at the site, Morgantina was once a bustling and powerful town in Sicily’s interior. Near Aidone, 5km east of Piazza Armerina (home to the stunning mosaics of Villa Romana del Casale), there is also evidence of several plush Classical villas at Morgantina. It was conquered by the Romans in 263 BC and definitively came under Roman rule in 211 BC. It was also involved in Sicily’s two slave rebellions during the second century BC, but by the first century BC, nothing the town had been completely destroyed and nothing was left of it.

Archaeologists who later excavated at the site say that a 100 lira coin from 1978 was found at the scene, suggesting the looting took place at the end of the 70s or early 80s.

An agreement between the Met and Italy’s Ministry for Heritage in 2006 has meant that the ancient silverware is now on its way back to Sicily (with a short stop-over in Rome), where it will go on display in Palermo from 4 June.

But is this really a story with a happy ending? There are two sides to the argument. Some argue that justice has now been done (better late than never) and that historical artefacts should be displayed in or near to the context in which they were found. The other side of the coin is that Italy has possibly the highest density of Classical heritage on the planet, so is it possible that a wonderful collection of silverware from ancient Sicily may not have the attention or impact that it would get if it was displayed abroad?

The Case of the Euphronios Krater

Italy is pushing hard for many objects to be repatriated and the Morgantina treasure is just the latest in a flurry of antiquities that are making their way back to Italy having been illegally exported and sold to high-profile museums in the 1970s and 80s. The Euphronios krater was repatriated from the Met in 2008, while the Venus of Morgantina is due to be sent back to Italy from the Getty museum soon.

The Euphronios krater, a 515 BC painted vase by Greek artist Euphronios looted from an Etruscan tomb in Cerveteri, north of Rome, in the early 1970s caused some debate when it was returned in 2008. Like the Morgantina silverware, this vase also passed through the hands of Robert Hecht and was sold to the Met in 1972. It is now on display at Villa Giulia, the national Etruscan museum in Rome.

But Michael Kimmelman, in the New York Times, argues that while the krater was the star piece in the Met’s collection of ancient vases, at Villa Giulia it is overshadowed. While the Met has visitor numbers of around 5.2 million per year, I suspect Villa Giulia’s visitor figures are much lower, although those visitors may be there because they are specifically interested in the Etruscans and no doubt really appreciate being able to see such an important vase in the context of an Etruscan collection.

The director of Villa Giulia, Anna Maria Moretti, told La Repubblica that, on the contrary, the Euphronios vase is on display in one of the museum’s central rooms near to the famous Etruscan statue Apollo from Veio. Far from being overshadowed, it is now the primary exhibit in a museum dedicated to Etruscan culture and art, in the heart of Rome (so accessible to the millions of tourists who visit each year) and also not more than about 50km from the tomb that was originally robbed by the tombaroli 40 years ago.

Next Stop Palermo

The final destination of the Morgantina treasure is Palermo’s Archaeological Museum of Antonino Salinas where it’s due to go on display from 4 June 2010. It may not have the grand surroundings of New York’s Met, but it will now be housed on the island where it was illegally dug up and the Italian authorities feel as though justice has been done.

In the meantime, it will be on display at Palazzo Massimo alle Terme in Rome until 23rd May. Click here for details of prices and opening times.

Tutankhamun’s Funeral – A New King Tut Exhibition at New York’s Met

Harry Burton photograph of the King Tut's death mask with floral collars In 1908, more than a decade before the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb, American retired lawyer and archaeologist Theodore Davis made a remarkable discovery. While excavating in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, he unearthed about a dozen large storage jars. Their contents included broken pottery, bags of natron, bags of sawdust, floral collars, and pieces of linen with markings from years 6 and 8 during the reign of a then little-known pharaoh named Tutankhamun. The significance of the find was not immediately understood, and the objects entered the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art as a mystery. It was only several years later, after further excavations and study, that the Museums Herbert E. Winlock was able to identify them: the small cache contained the remains from the embalming and funeral of King Tut. These objects now get their own exhibition – Tutankhamun’s Funeral – which runs at New York’s Met until November 6th.

Often called ‘the Boy King’, Tutankhamun was about nine years old when he ascended the throne of ancient Egypt. He died approximately nine years later, possibly owing to causes that include a weakened immune system and malaria. His death may have been unexpected, so his own tomb was still unfinished. The rather small tomb in which he was actually buried – and which you can visit in King Tut Virtual – had been started for another person, not for a king. Eventually, workmen’s huts completely hid the entrance to the tomb, and its location was forgotten.

The discovery of the storage vessels by Theodore Davis and the accurate identification of their contents helped lead Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon to the discovery of King Tut’s tomb (watch the video series).

The large, sealed storage jars containing carefully packed equipment and objects were found in KV54 – not so much a tomb, but rather a small pit near to the tomb of Seti I discovered in 1907. Theodore Davis who funded the excavations got permission to take six of the storage jars out of Egypt and in 1909 donated them to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. He then in 1912 – published his findings in a book (The Tombs of Harmhabi and Touatankhamanou) and told the press he had discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun. In 1914 Davis’ concession to excavate in the Valley of the Kings was passed on to Lord Carnarvon.

Star Objects from Tutankhamun’s Embalming Cache

Linen containing hieratic writing which reads “The good god, Lord of the Two Lands, Nebkheperure, beloved of Min. Linen of year 6.” (Nebkheperure is Tutankhamun’s Prenomen)
The Florar collar found in KV54 that holds clues to when King Tut died.

In time, Herbert Winlock, curator and field director of the Metropolitan’s Egyptian excavations and in the 1930s Director of the Museum, came to realize that the natron (a mixture of sodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate, sodium sulphate, and sodium chloride that occurs naturally in Egypt, as Salima Ikram tells us in this video) and linen were the embalming refuse from the mummification of Tutankhamun. He also suggested that the animal bones, pottery, and collars might have come from a funeral meal.

Winlock’s analysis KV54 was an embalming cache rather than King Tut’s tomb – was an important clue that led to Howard Carter’s 1922 discovery of KV62 some 110 metres away from where the storage jars were unearthed.

When did King Tut die?

The funeral materials unearthed by Theodore Davis (who discovered the tomb of Yuya and Thuya, Tut’s great-grandparents as well) might even bear clues to solve another riddle in the King Tut puzzle: when did Tutankhamun die? Scholars studying the funerary cache have been able to reconstruct details of his death and burial. We already knew that the Boy King died young – at age 19 – but now scientists might have nailed down the exact season of his death. Botanical analysis of the well-preserved, more than 3,000-year-old floral collars indicates that the plants they contain flower in Egypt between late February and midMarch. Since the complex process of mummification (here explained by DrZahi Hawass) took about 70 days, it is now believed that King Tut probably died in December or January.

Tutankhamun’s Funeral Exhibition at the Met

The exhibition, Tutankhamun’s Funeral, will feature jars, lids, bowls, floral collars, linen sheets, and bandages that were used at the pharaoh’s mummification and the rites associated with his burial and related objects. These include a sculpted head of Tutankhamun as a youth, and several facsimile paintings depicting funerary rituals. Archival photographs from the early 20th century by Harry Burton, the Museum’s expedition photographer, will provide an evocative background.

The exhibition Tutankhamun’s Funeral at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City – which runs until November 6th – will explore the materials and rituals associated with the burial of the pharaoh. The presentation will include some 60 objects, primarily from the Met’s own collection. The objects on display at the Met complement a major exhibition of treasures from the tomb of Tutankhamun ‘~~King Tut NYC- Return of the King~~ Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharoahs‘ on view April 23th 2010 to January 2th 2011, at the Discovery Times Square Exposition.

Call the Cops! Naked Woman Arrested for Art Stunt at the Met

Although it seems that museums no longer have any kind of dress code these days, a young woman recently fell foul of the requirement to at least be wearing, like, something. A story in the UK’s Guardian newspaper tells the tale of woe of Kathleen “KC” Neill, who was arrested and charged with public lewdness for posing nude for photographer Zach Hyman in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Hyman is making a collection of photographs of nudity in New York’s public spaces (check out images of gob-smacked commuters gazing at gorgeous naked models on the New York subway, captured by photographer Clint Spauling).

Iknow New York has the reputation for crazies, but for precisely this reason, this project seems to lack thrill factor, which is probably why it didn’t make much of a stir in the local press here in New York. I’ve seen two men in full armour fighting with broadswords on the sidewalk in Union Square at one o’clock in the morning; my local bookshop for a while displayed in its window a photo book whose cover depicted a woman with a lighted candle sticking out of her rectum; there was a guy who used to regularly walk around the East Village with a 20-foot boa constrictor round his neck. Putting a nude in a public space is pretty mild stuff, although Iam tempted to ask: where did she put that little metal button that visitors to the Met have to display at all times?

Frankly, it smells of publicity stunt to me. And, oh, look! Sure enough, Mr. Hyman’s photographs are on display this week at “Decent Exposures,” at Chair and the Maiden Gallery on Christopher Street in New York’s Greenwich Village, Sept.03-Oct. 04. Sadly, you will not be able to see the one taken in the Met. Hyman says the museum staff took his camera away for ten minutes, then he had to give his camera and backpack to his brother while he went down to police station, and somehow either deliberately or in the confusion, the film became exposed.

When Ilook at his photograph of a spectacularly leggy and fit naked woman on a crowded New York subway train, I feel sorry for the passengers. Who wants to be reminded of their own physical imperfections during the morning commute? If I want to admire the human form, I’ll go… well, I suppose I’ll go to an art gallery.

Meanwhile, you can vote on whether all this skin constitutes art or not at the Weekly World News site here.

Images courtesy of www.clintspaulding.com

Finding body parts in Brooklyn is news? It is when they’re this old!

Those of you who just can’t get enough of the Ancient Egyptians and their obsessive-compulsive burial rituals are in for a treat at the Brooklyn Museum when it opens its exhbition, Body Parts: Ancient Egyptian Fragments and Amulets, this November.

The Museum announced:”Body Parts features thirty-five objects that represent individual body parts in ancient Egyptian art from the Brooklyn Museums collection, many of which will be displayed for the first time. While traditional exhibitions of ancient art focus on reconstructing damaged works, this exhibition uses fragmentary objects to illuminate the very realistic depiction of individual body parts in canonical Egyptian sculpture. The ancient Egyptians carefully depicted each part of the human body, respecting the significance of every detail. When viewed individually these sculptures and fragments reveal ancient notions of the body, as well as details of workmanship, frequently unnoticed in more complete sculptures.

This exhibition is organized by Yekaterina Barbash, Assistant Curator of Egyptian Art, Brooklyn Museum.

The Brooklyn Museum is often portrayed as poor relation to Manhattan’s Metropolitan Museum of Art… but the truth is it’s more like a funky younger brother.

The Brooklyn Museum is often portrayed as poor relation to Manhattan’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, across the East River, but the truth is it’s more like a funky younger brother, or even black-sheep niece. When the Saatchis brought the controversial “Sensation” exhibition to New York City, it was at the Brooklyn Museum that it found a home, not the more staid institutions in Manhattan.

The Brooklyn Museum has an impressive collection of Ancient Egyptian stuff, and a cheering propensity to, like, really do things to make the collection constantly fresh and interesting. At present, they are showing, “Magic in Ancient Egypt: Image, Word, and Reality,” which runs through Oct. 18. What more excuse do you need for a visit?

Check out Two Boots Pizza in Park Slope, afterwards, for food good and cheap enough to bring you back from the dead.