SLAM Director: Question of Integrity

Mummy mask from Saqqara
SLAM Director

The Director of SLAM (Saint Louis Art Museum) is facing a dilemma. Does he believe that the Egyptian mummy mask found at Saqqara, and acquired by his museum, was in Cairo in 1966? It appears in the Cairo register.

But that would mean that the parallel collecting history, apparently supplied by the Swiss-based vendor, is little more than fiction.

And if the vendor's collecting history is fiction, then there is a lack of fact.

And the lack of fact means that the mummy mask was likely to have been removed from the Saqqara store in an irregular way.

But that means that SLAM has been using less than sound evidence to defend its position.

Is it time for the Director of SLAM to show his integrity and to start negotiating for the return of the mask?

Heritage Crime in Devon: Torbryan

The Torbryan panel before the theft.
Source: The Churches Conservation Trust

Medieval panels dating to the 15th century have been stolen from the church of Holy Trinity, Torbryan, Devon [Press release].

The oak screen with panels is one of the most important examples of its kind in the country. Its mid-15th-century painted panels represent a variety of saints and church dignitaries. The artistry is of a very high status, suggesting that the artist was specially commissioned to produce the panels for the screen. Even though some of the panels have been missing for many years the Torbryan screen represents an exceptionally complete survival from the late medieval period that escaped the worst excesses of the iconoclasts who took down most of the screens in the country during the reformation, especially those that included representations of saints.

No doubt this will appear on the market as part of an old European collection.

SLAM: will the museum do the right thing?

There has been renewed covered of the Egyptian mummy mask excavated at Saqqara acquired by the Saint Louis Art Museum. The mask has parallel collecting histories. This is a mask that the museum implicitly asserts was sold in Brussels in 1952 and allegedly acquired by the Kaloterna collection in 1962. Yet amazingly the mask was in Cairo in 1966, but was acquired by an anonymous Swiss collector around 1967.

I do not believe it. Do the curators at SLAM believe it?

Will  they publish the full authenticated and documented collecting history? And how do they explain the mask's appearance in Cairo in 1966?

Perhaps Jason Busch, the newly appointed deputy director would like to make a comment? Or how about the director, Brent R. Benjamin?

New York to return further Bothmer cup fragments

Detail of cup attributed to the Euaion painter.
Centre of tondo in Villa Giulia; outer fragments from Bothmer collection.
Identification: Christos Tsirogiannis.

In March 2013 I noted that Christos Tsirogiannis had linked fragments of an Attic red-figured cup from the Bothmer collection to a tondo residing in the Villa Giulia in Rome. Earlier today it was announced that the Metropolitan Museum of Art would be returning the cup fragments to be reunited with the known tondo fragment attributed to the Euaion painter.

The images of the Bothmer fragments were removed from the MMA website in June. This created suspicion that an announcement was likely in the near future.

The announcement indicates that the cup can be linked to central Italy. Will the MMA disclose how Bothmer acquired the fragments? This is particularly important given the previous return of Bothmer fragments to Italy in early 2012. Are there other fragments that can be linked to objects that have been returned to Italy?

The return shows the value of the AAMD object register that made the identification possible. When will the MMA publish images of the rest of the Bothmer collection?

Apart from Christos Tsirogiannis, it is important to acknowledge the work by Daniella Rizzo and Maurizio Pellegrini who have been behind the return of so many key archaeological objects to Italy.

The looting of FYROM

I was thinking about the looting of FYROM today. I was wondering if the present New York proprietor of the archaic bronze Koreschnica krater had been in touch with the FYROM authorities. (Perhaps the present owner could offer to have it conserved and displayed back in FYROM.) And then there is a silver plaque, apparently from the same burial, and acquired by a major North American university museum.

Fakes in China

The Guardian is reporting that the Jibaozhai Museum in China has a staggering  40000 fakes in its collection. indeed it's entire collection may be modern creations. This again is a reminder of the importance of obtaining objects with securely and documented collecting histories that preferably come from known archaeological contexts.

More interesting is the question about who created the forgeries? How were they acquired? Who authenticated them? who decided that they were worthy of display?

And has the Forger created material for other public and private collections?

Etruscan antiquities seized

Source: MiBAC

I have noted the seizure of a series of Etruscan funerary urns that appear to have been removed from a family burial near Perugia.

Elisabetta Povoledo has now carried the story in The New York Times ("Tale of Glorious Art and Not So Glorious Thieves", July 5, 2013). It includes a statement that the Italian Ministry of Culture will be strengthening its cultural property legislation.