Bubon: More Returning Sculptures

Line drawing of part of the base in the Sebasteion at Bubon, Türkiye with portrait statues of Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus at the appropriate positions. Note: the figures are not to scale.

Christopher Chippindale and I drew attention to the imperial bronzes associated with the Sebasteion at Bubon in Turkey back in 2000: discussion of this group can be traced back to the 1970s. The looting of this space seems to have taken place in the early 1960s. It now seems that the (headless) portrait of Marcus Aurelius as a philosopher will be returned from the Cleveland Museum of Art and will be reunited with the portrait of Lucius Verus from the Shelby White and Leon Levy collection: the pair were originally displayed, appropriately, next to each other. They will join the Lipson statue of Septimius Severus that was seized from New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. Other pieces include the head of Caracalla that had been displayed at Fordham University. 

Elizabeth Marlowe ("Bronze Roman statue, believed to have been looted from Turkey, seized from Cleveland Museum of Art", The Art Newspaper 31 August 2023) has pointed out that Cleveland has played down both the identification with Marcus Aurelius and the association with Bubon. The same phenomenon is being played out with the bronze statue in the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. The online entry now notes: 

It was associated throughout the 1970s and 1980s, by some scholars, with other bronzes that had been found near Bubon, Turkey. However, that opinion was ultimately disproved in 1993. The Houston sculpture was acquired in 1962; the excavations at Bubon commenced two years after, in 1964.

The start of the illicit activity at Bubon may well have preceded 1962 and the museum would be sensible to be cautious.

It appears that a portrait of a woman from the Worcester Art Museum (inv. 1966.67) has also been removed from display. It was reported to have been found 'in south-western Anatolia'. Andrew Oliver associated this find with Bubon. 

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The Houston bronze krater

The bronze krater (once) on loan to Houston is mentioned by Monica S. Dugot, Thomas R. Kline, Jennifer Anglim Kreder, and Lucille A. Roussin, "Legal and Ethical Problems in Art Restitution", in a paper given in New York on April 4, 2008.

... a bronze krater is currently on loan to the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston from the Shelby White –Leon Levy collection, and there are calls for the museum to release its provenience history. 

As far as I know the collecting history for this krater has not been released.

Interestingly the cases relating to cultural property in Minneapolis (2011) and Toledo (2012) and mentioned in the same paragraph have now both been resolved.

Bronze krater (once) on loan to Houston

I have been rather taken aback by the amount of interest to my post on a bronze krater that was once (and perhaps still is) on loan to Houston. I had been looking forward to the publication of the piece by Conrad Stibbe in the volume for Leon Levy but I understand from colleagues in NYC that this will not be appearing.

Does this mean that there is a move to return the krater to FYROM?

I have commented elsewhere on the Koreschnica krater and its burial.

Parts of the tomb assemblage appear to be in a major North American university collection so there could be significant implications if this group is investigated.

The Bubon Caracalla at Fordham

The Fire of Hephaistos gives a brief mention of the bronze head of Caracalla that was removed from the Sebasteion at Bubon in Turkey (and others appear in the catalogue). The same head is mentioned in Gill and Chippindale, "Material consequences of contemporary classical collecting", AJA 104 (2000).

And now this head appears in the Fordham University Collection inv. 7.068: "it has been suggested that the Fordham example may have belonged to a large statue group of Roman emperors from a Sebasteion in the city of Bubon". Indeed it has been suggested that the head fits the headless statue in Houston Museum of Fine Arts (also apparently one of the Bubon statues).

The curatorial team at Fordham may be unaware of the issues surrounding Bubon. But I hope that one of them will do the honourable thing and contact the cultural attache at the Turkish Embassy.

Antiquities in Houston

There are two antiquities in or, perhaps, that used to be in the Museum of Fine Arts Houston (MFAH) that have been of some interest to me. For some reason the museum has been a little reserved about supplying information about their collecting histories.

The first is a Minoan larnax, given by Shelby White. The MFAH Annual Report (2006-2007) no longer appears to be online. I requested information back in 2008.

The second is a Trebenishte style krater, on loan from Shelby White. I requested information on this krater back in early 2008. It is known that officials from the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) have been trying to reclaim the Koreschnica krater (of Trebenishte type) from a North American private collection. (The Shelby White krater was due to be published in the series of essays, Collecting in Context, in honour of Leon Levy.)

Given that yet another object from the Shelby White collection has been returned to its country of origin (Turkey) this month, would it be sensible for the curatorial staff at MFAH to check their records?

Menil Collection to return frescoes to Cyprus

It has been announced that the Menil Foundation in Houston will be returning Byzantine frescoes from the church at Lysi to Cyprus (Elisabetta Polvoledo, "The Menil Is to Return Frescoes to Cyprus", New York Times September 23, 2011). They will be displayed in a museum in Nicosia as Lysi is in the northern part of the island.  The pieces had been purchased in 1984 on the understanding that they would be returned to Cyprus in due course.

Trebenishte krater on display in Rome

The magnificent Trebenishte krater has gone on display in Rome after receiving expert restoration in Italy. This is part of an exhibition on works of art from the National Museum in Belgrade.

This draws attention to a second Trebenishte style krater that has been on loan to the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. What is its collecting history? Where was it found? Why have the curatorial staff at MFAH been reluctant to answer questions?

And what has happened to Conrad Stibbe's study of this second krater?

Image
Source: Quirinale.

Houston's Minoan Larnax

Greece has asked the USA to consider imposing import restrictions on certain categories of archaeological material. It seems that they are concerned that looting continues to feed the market in recently-surfaced antiquities.

Concern has been expressed in the Greek press and by the Greek authorities about the Minoan larnax in the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University.

But what is the full collecting history of the Minoan larnax acquired by Houston's Museum of Fine Art (MFAH)? It is nearly two years since I sent a request to the MFAH (another AAMD member) for this information. Is the silence significant?

The Houston larnax is likely to have been found on Crete. When did it surface?

Another recently-surfaced Minoan larnax

Earlier this autumn (fall) I noted the acquisition of a Minoan larnax by the Michael C. Carlos Museum in 2002. So it was interesting to observe the acquisition of another Minoan larnax by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH): The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Annual Report (2006-2007) p. 83 [pdf].

The Houston larnax is listed as "Gift of Shelby White". The only other information provided is the date (1600–1100 B.C.), material ("Terracotta and paint"), and dimensions (17 5/8 x 40 1/8 [45 x 102]). No inventory number is provided and there is no picture. Even the precise date of acquisition is unclear (though it was within the period 2006-2007).

Was this originally a loan? See Patricia C. Johnson, "Borrowing trouble; Long-term loans don't let museums off the hook", Houston Chronicle July 16, 2006: "The 11th loaned piece is a Minoan terracotta "larnax'' (a kind of bathtub/sarcophagus) dated 1600-1000 B.C., on long-term loan from another private collection". (The report was in the context of 10 Roman portraits from the Shelby White collection including one of Hadrian.) Or was this loan yet another recently-surfaced larnax?

Shelby White seems to have close links with MFAH:

• loan exhibition of Greek bronzes ("Greek Bronze Vessels from the Collection of Shelby White and Leon Levy", 2005) [comment]
• loan exhibition of Roman portraits ("Reading the Roman Portrait Bust", 2006) [see also: Patricia C. Johnson, "Borrowing trouble; Long-term loans don't let museums off the hook", Houston Chronicle July 16, 2006]
  
• loan of bronze krater of Trebenishte type

Shelby White has been linked to

• the return of antiquities to Italy
• the return of antiquities to Greece
• the Weary Herakles (presently in Boston)
• the Icklingham bronzes

Remember also that earlier research with Christopher Chippindale suggested that 93% of the antiquities in the Shelby White and Leon Levy had no information about the find-spot. To Shelby White such research was just the presentation of "meaningless numbers". But history has shown that our research was meaningful given the record of returns.

So what is the collecting history of the Houston larnax? When and where did Shelby White acquire it? Or did she just provide the means for MFAH to purchase it from a third party? What is the collecting history of the larnax? Was the larnax known prior to 1970? What rigorous "due diligence" research did the curatorial staff of MFAH undertake?

These are not unreasonable questions to ask - and curatorial staff in Houston have been asked by email.

Such information needs to be disclosed. The MFAH as a member institution of the AAMD and should provide "full and prompt disclosure" and make "information readily available to all interested parties".

So why the silence?