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Showing posts with label british museum. Show all posts
Showing posts with label british museum. Show all posts

January 5, 2026

Monday, January 05, 2026 - ,,,,,, No comments

Interview with Marcel Marée - Egyptologist and curator in the Department of Egypt and Sudan at the British Museum

As part of ARCA’s ongoing effort to give prospective participants a deeper look behind the scenes of our Postgraduate Certificate Program in Art Crime and Cultural Heritage Protection, Edgar Tijhuis* speaks with our faculty members about their work, their motivations, and the learning environment we create each summer in Italy.

This series aims to offer future participants a personal glimpse into the people who teach with ARCA, the community around it, and what to expect in the coming year.

To begin, could you tell us a bit about yourself?

I am an Egyptologist and curator in the Department of Egypt and Sudan at the British Museum. Through my curatorial work and easy access to sale catalogues, I began to notice recurring problems on the art market: artefacts with dubious histories, questionable practices by sellers, and a striking lack of transparency. As I researched further, it became clear that a significant number of antiquities in circulation can be traced back to recent looting events and are being laundered through false or misleading provenances.

In response, I founded the Circulating Artefacts (CircArt) project in 2018, which I have led ever since. The project applies rigorous provenance research to the trade in cultural heritage, with the dual aim of facilitating the recovery of illegally sourced artefacts and preserving the historical information that so often is lost through plunder and trafficking. The project is currently transitioning into an independent organisation under a new name, to be formally announced next year.

I regularly provide research, expertise, and training to heritage professionals and relevant authorities across Europe, North America, and MENA countries. I work closely with the Border Security and Management Unit of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and am a founding member of its Heritage Crime Task Force, which responds to requests for investigative assistance from member and partner countries.

I take a strong interest in the role subject specialists can play in the fight against heritage crime. Early on, I became aware of ARCA’s pioneering efforts to build bridges among all parties in this endeavour – from prosecutors and law enforcement officers to archaeologists and representatives of the trade. I strongly support ARCA’s work, and our collaborations continue to develop and bear fruit.

You have been part of ARCA’s community for some time. Have you attended the annual Amelia Art Crime Conference or previous programmes? And do you have one memorable moment or insight you would like to share with future participants?

I have been actively involved with ARCA’s programmes since 2018, contributing courses and supervising several Capstone theses. One of the most striking aspects of the programme is the students’ exceptional motivation and intellectual engagement, which consistently elevates the quality and depth of the discussions. Their commitment plays a crucial role in shaping a vibrant and supportive ARCA community that extends well beyond the classroom.

What particularly distinguishes the programme is the diversity of participants’ professional and academic backgrounds. This creates a uniquely productive forum for constructive dialogue and meaningful skill-sharing, bringing together perspectives from heritage professionals, law enforcement, researchers, legal experts, and others working in relevant areas. This interdisciplinary exchange provides a solid foundation for developing the professional networks, shared knowledge, and practical infrastructure needed to effectively address the illicit trade in cultural property.

I have attended several of the annual Amelia Art Crime Conferences. They are intellectually stimulating and very motivational, offering a unique opportunity to engage with leading practitioners in the field, exchange ideas across sectors, and strengthen professional connections that often translate into lasting collaborations. People like us are thinly spread, so we rely on networking to maximise the impact of our work.

From your perspective, what makes ARCA’s Postgraduate Certificate Program truly unique and valuable?

ARCA’s Postgraduate Certificate Program is truly unique because it creates a sustained and structured framework for dialogue among professionals who rarely have the opportunity to learn with one another in such a focused area of interest. It brings together participants with widely divergent backgrounds and skill sets – archaeologists, law enforcement officers, legal scholars, forensic analysts, museum professionals, and art market stakeholders. This encourages them to engage not only across disciplines, but across professional cultures.

This kind of interdisciplinary exchange is not merely beneficial; it is essential. The illicit trade in cultural property operates across jurisdictions, sectors, and legal systems, and no single profession can address it effectively in isolation. ARCA’s programme fosters the shared vocabulary, mutual understanding, expertise, and trust required for meaningful collaboration, helping participants to better understand each other’s constraints, priorities, and modes of operation.

Equally important is the programme’s strong emphasis on practical skills and real-world case studies, which bridges the gap between theory and practice. By equipping participants with both conceptual tools and applied methodologies, ARCA contributes directly to improving the effectiveness of investigations, prosecutions, and preventative measures. In this sense, the programme does not simply educate individuals; it helps build the collaborative infrastructure that is indispensable for countering the illegal trade in art and antiquities. Enhanced communication and collaboration between all relevant parties is essential to achieve a higher success rate in counteracting the trade in stolen art and artefacts.

How does the location in Italy — surrounded by centuries of cultural heritage — enhance the learning experience for participants?

I have no doubt that the setting deepens the participants’ sense of inspiration and cultural awareness. That said, cultural heritage is everywhere, and the issues ARCA addresses are by no means confined to Italy.

What the location does offer is a tangible reminder of the long temporal depth and fragility of cultural heritage, and of the cumulative and irreversible impact that poor management and loss can have over time. Being immersed in a place where archaeology, architecture, archives, and living communities intersect will sharpen the participants’ awareness of what is at stake whenever cultural objects, or parts thereof, are removed from their contexts and enter illicit or poorly regulated markets.

In this sense, the Italian setting functions less as a backdrop and more as a quiet point of reference, reinforcing the programme’s core themes without overshadowing its global scope or analytical focus.

Are there particular site visits or practical elements during your course that you find especially valuable?

From my perspective as a speaker, what I find most valuable is the amount of time the programme allocates not only for the presentation of teaching materials in appropriate depth, but also for sustained discussion. This allows complex issues to be unpacked carefully, including the methodological ramifications of provenance research, the practical limits of what subject specialists can and cannot establish from the available evidence, and the ways in which their findings can be brought to bear on police action.

The extended format encourages detailed question-and-answer exchanges, in which finer points can be explored interactively rather than addressed superficially. These discussions often prompt critical reflection, challenge assumptions, and invite participants to contribute perspectives drawn from their own professional experience. For me, this combination of in-depth teaching and engaged dialogue is where much of the programme’s practical value lies.

As we look toward the 2026 program, which developments or emerging issues in the field of art crime do you consider particularly important, and how will these be reflected in your course?

One of the most alarming developments in the field is the growing use of digital technologies to fabricate or manipulate provenance documentation. These tools have significantly lowered the barrier to producing seemingly convincing ownership histories, making traditional forms of due diligence increasingly vulnerable to deception.

This development makes greater involvement of subject specialists – archaeologists, art historians – more pressing than ever. I see an increasing urgency to move beyond heavy reliance on circumstantial and document-based evidence and to strengthen analytical approaches based on evidence contained in the objects themselves. Stylistic and technical features, epigraphic and philological clues, iconography, material characteristics, the presence of dirt, wear, or alterations – all of these, and more, can provide trained specialists with robust indicators of recent illicit excavation at identifiable looting hotspots. Besides, objects should never be studied in isolation. It is vitally important to assess whether they form part of a broader pattern of material observable on the market.

In my course, I stress the need for methodological rigour in provenance research. Participants learn how experts can critically assess documentation, recognise the limits of paper trails, and understand how object-based analysis can provide concrete, defensible findings to help support investigations and enable law-enforcement action. This equips participants to identify old and new forms of deception in the antiquities trade. I will also argue that we need to expand and coordinate capacity to provide police with actionable specialist knowledge, often on short notice as objects are being detained for potential seizure. A new opportunity has arisen to build and harness this capacity sustainably, and this will be addressed in the course.

I will also remind participants that provenance research serves not only to support law enforcement in the recovery of objects, but also to safeguard associated historical data at risk of permanent loss. When specialists share knowledge without adequate reciprocity from the relevant authorities, valuable information is often lost unnecessarily – for example, data concerning other artefacts linked to the same suspect and thus potentially originating from the same archaeological locale. Failure to share information in both directions erases history, discourages specialist engagement, and undermines investigative opportunities. I have encountered multiple examples of this neglect.

The insistence of subject specialists on contextual knowledge may seem excessive, but law enforcement officers must understand that this information substantially enhances the evidentiary, historical, and cultural value of recovered artefacts – and that its loss is an avoidable calamity. Too often, police take for granted the support they receive from specialists, without acknowledging their own responsibility to help preserve clues about the contexts from which objects have been removed. This includes information about supply routes and other artefacts handled by the same actors. It is entirely understandable that professionals from different backgrounds may be blind to each other’s priorities, but this is precisely why sustained and thoughtful communication between these parties is so essential.

Last but not least, my course will demonstrate that enhanced scrutiny of the trade by subject specialists can help foster good practice in the market. When carefully managed, a public service for robust provenance research can establish a new benchmark for ethical trade, promoting higher standards of due diligence among sellers and buyers, and discouraging the circulation of illegally sourced objects. Proactive monitoring by specialists is crucial for ensuring accountability, benefiting all honest actors. Sellers and buyers can reduce their exposure to financial, reputational, and legal risks if they are willing to seek expert feedback in a transparent and auditable manner. To achieve this, we must improve the conditions that make such engagement possible.

What key skills, perspectives, or tools do you hope participants will gain from your course? In what ways can they apply these insights in their professional or academic paths?

The key aim is for subject specialists to recognise the vital role they must play in protecting cultural heritage from criminal exploitation. My course draws attention to a wide range of underused and overlooked methods and tools at their disposal. Academia remains a largely untapped resource in criminal investigations, yet specialists can make a crucial difference by providing law enforcement with reliable intelligence, based on thorough provenance research that only they are equipped to conduct.

The time when experts could conveniently distance themselves from the art market and its practices is over. For those who claim to be heritage professionals, turning a blind eye to heritage destruction is no longer an option. To suggest that this responsibility falls outside their daily duties or institutional remit is hardly justifiable. This sense of disconnect – or outright indifference – remains depressingly common, even in museums, the very institutions entrusted with safeguarding heritage. Such distancing not only fails to protect the past but also enables ongoing losses.

Through my course, participants gain not only the technical skills and analytical tools to assess an object’s archaeological origin and ownership history, but also the perspective and professional confidence to apply these tools responsibly. They learn how to turn their research into usable intelligence for law enforcement, inform prosecutions, and strengthen heritage protection, ensuring that their work has tangible impact both academically and in the real world.

If someone is considering applying to ARCA’s 2026 program, what advice would you give them? And why do you think now is a meaningful moment to engage with this field?

My advice to anyone considering participation in ARCA’s 2026 program is to be prepared to engage fully, not just with the material but with the ethical and practical dilemmas and challenges of protecting cultural heritage. Be ready to learn from experts across disciplines, to question assumptions, and to develop the skills and perspectives that will allow you to make a tangible difference in this field.

Now is a particularly critical moment to engage with the scourge of heritage crime. Around the world, cultural heritage is being destroyed and sold off on an unprecedented scale. There is a pressing need for more people to organise and tackle this problem effectively. The challenges are evolving, as new technologies make illicit practices increasingly sophisticated. Yet the tools, methodologies, and collaborative frameworks available to confront heritage crime are now also more robust than ever. There has never been a more suitable time for well-intentioned specialists to apply their expertise responsibly and make a real-world impact. And ARCA’s program provides the ideal foundation for those seeking to build a career in this field.

----------------

* Dr Edgar Tijhuis is Academic Director at ARCA and is responsible for coordinating ARCA’s postgraduate certificate programmes. Since 2009, he has also taught criminology modules within ARCA's PG Certification programming. To apply for the 2026 programmes, request a prospectus via the email below or contact Edgar Tijhuis for other questions.

📌 ARCA Postgraduate Certificate Programmes (Italy | Summer 2026)

• Post Lauream I (22 May – 23 June 2026): PG Cert in Art & Antiquities Crime

• Post Lauream II (26 June – 26 July 2026): PG Cert in Provenance, Acquisition & Interpretation of Cultural Property

➡️ Take one track—or combine both in a single summer.



August 28, 2025

Thursday, August 28, 2025 - ,,,,,,,,,, No comments

Six Months for 590 Artefacts: The Case of U.S.-Egyptian Smuggler Ashraf Omar Eldarir

Ashraf Omar Eldarir has recieved a six month prison sentence in US Federal court. 

ARCA has written a lot about Eldarir, a naturalised U.S. citizen from Brooklyn.   The first time was back in 2022 after he was indicted in the United States District Court, Eastern District of New York, on two counts of smuggling, under Title 18 U.S. Code § 545, 2 and 3551 et seq. after he flew into John F. Kennedy International Airport on from an international flight from Egypt with three suitcases filled from top to bottom with illicit antiquities wrapped in protective packaging.

In our second article we published an open source list of many of the Egyptian artefacts actively in circulation on the US and European markets which were traceable to Eldarir, reminding buyers that Caveat Emptor, if the name on the collecting history of their Egyptian artefacts included any of these names or combinations of stories they were likely to be looted.

⇏ Ashraf Omar Eldarir (see our earlier post today).
⇏ Anything with any spelling that says something like ex-private Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir collection; ex-Salahaddin Sirmali collection.
⇏ Anything with "formerly Collection Salah al-Din Sarmali Bey. Acquired by Izz al-Din Tah al-Darir Bey in Egypt.

In our third story, we examined how the insatiable U.S. demand for Egyptian antiquities between 2012 until 2020, and the ease with which illicit pieces could be laundered into the licit market and resold, often for substantial sums—created fertile ground for smugglers like Mr. Eldarir.  We also expanded our growing list of his identifiable imports and published an example of one of his forged provenance letters, and raised the obvious elephant-in-the-room question: catching one man with 590 artefacts in his suitcases is one thing, but what about the 'don’t ask, don’t tell' dealers and auction houses who eagerly absorbed his material into the supply chain? Eldarir’s scheme relied on fabricated attestation letters and never once produced an export license or verifiable proof of ownership, yet the ancient art market had welcomed his goods all the same.

In February 2025 we reported that after a prolonged federal court case, Eldarir had finally elected to do what most federally charged individuals tend to (eventually) do.  Knowing he stood a snowball's chance in hell of being found not guilty, the former doctor-turned-smuggler pleaded out, admitting that he had smuggled ancient Egyptian artefacts into the United States over a series of trips to and from his home country.  In theory, for his role in these affairs, US sentencing guidelines estimated that he could serve as many as three to five years behind bars and might even face denaturalisation, which could send him back to the very country that he so prolifically robbed.

ARCA continued to ask what happened to these two high value pieces sold through Christie's to a dealer in Switzerland. 

One was this portrait head of a man, sold first through Christies New York in 2012 for $52,500.  Despite the trafficker's arrest in the US, this piece was still up for sale during the COVID-affected TEFAF Maastricht art fair in 2020, at the stand of Swiss dealer, Jean David Cahn.  Here the piece was called "a Portrait Head of the Emperor Severus Alexander" with a price on request. 


A second, was also present at TEFAF at Cahn's stand: a Double Life sized Ptolemaic Royal Portrait Possibly Ptolemy III Euergetes.  

To close this story, yesterday Joseph Nocella, Jr., United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York; announced that Judge Rachel P. Kovner had sentenced Ashraf Omar Eldarir to six months in prison.  

In much of the reporting around this case, some journalists have zeroed in on the fact that the British Museum once purchased an Eldarir-smuggled ushabti through Mousa Khouli’s Palmyra Heritage, a New York gallery run by a convicted trafficker of Egyptian cultural property.  It makes for easy headlines: the BM’s missteps are as consumable in the press as gossip about the British royal family.

But what most of those articles miss is the quieter truth, that it was not scandal but diligence that first turned the tide. Staff at the British Museum recognised that the ushabti in question could be tied directly to a known looting incident in Egypt. Rather than turn a blind eye, this staffer flagged their concerns to law enforcement, providing a crucial lead that put Eldarir on the radar of U.S. authorities.

Forensic investigations often depend on this kind of vigilance: the quiet, careful work of scholars who hardly ever make the headlines, but whose interventions are critical in making cases viable.  In this instance, the unsung hero was not a prosecutor, a journalist, or an independent scholar, but a museum professional working to keep their own museum clean, and who refused to ignore the red flags of objects under their care. 

I for one think they deserve our thanks.

By:  Lynda Albertson

April 12, 2015

Sunday, April 12, 2015 - ,,,,,,, 2 comments

An Updated Analysis of What Remains of Nimrud's NorthWest Palace of Ashurnasirpal II


Photo by Mustafa Al Najjar
As news of the Nimrud explosion video produced by Daash, ISIL, Deash, ISIS, Daaesh, Islamic State gets press time.  Rearchers and journalists are beginning to comment on the missing chunks and slices of the Assyrian reliefs seen from the video's imagery of the North-West Palace of Ashurnasirpal II.  Social Media has been abuzz with speculation that these pieces may have been removed in advance of the explosion, for sale on the illicit antiquities market.   While this might partially prove to be  true, it is premature to speculate on this before cross referencing and doing so just adds to the shock and horror propaganda the militants want to demonstrate.

Sam Hardy has excellent Day One analysis of the attack on Nimrud as does Paul Barford who asks when this video was made.

A new PDF report analyzing relief and object damage was published by Simone Mühlon on April 15, 2015 and can be downloaded here. 

Assyrian reliefs, stone slaps and epigraphic remains in the form of cuneiform texts can also be found in private and museum collections throughout the world.  ARCA has listed a fairly comprehensive listing of the 76 known public collections and 6 private collections which contain material culture from this archaeological site.
  
 Museums

Abegg Foundation, Bern
Amherst College, Amherst
Archäologisches Institut und Archäologische Sammlung der Universität Zürich, Zurich
Arkeoloji Müzeleri, Istanbul
The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
The Art Museum, Princeton University
Arts & Culture Centre, Memorial University
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
Australian Institute of Archaeology
Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbay, India (formerly Victoria and Albert Museum)
Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine
The British Museum, London
Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn,
Burrell Collection. Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, Mumbay, India (formerly Prince of Wales Museum of Western India)
Christ Church College, Oxford
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk
Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati
Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit
Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge
Fleming Museum, University of Vermont
Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University
Glencairn Museum, Academy of the New Church, Bryn Athyn
Hood Museum, Dartmouth College
Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo
Kalamazoo Valley Museum, Michigan
Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles
Louvre Museum, Paris
Magdalen College, Oxford
Manchester University, Museum, Manchester
Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
M.H. De Young Museum, San Francisco
Miho Museum, Kyoto
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis
Mosul Museum, Mosul, Iraq (Condition unknown)
Middlebury College, Middlebury
Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley
Museo Civico di Archeologia Ligure, Genoa
Museo Barracco, Rome
Museo Gregoriano Egizio, Rome
Musées royaux d’Art et d’Histoire, Brussels
Musei Vaticani, Rome
Museum and Art Gallery, Bristol
Museum Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg
Museum of Art, Cleveland
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Narodowe w Warszawie, Warsaw
National Car Museum of Iran, Tehran, Iran
National Museum of Iraq, Baghdad (Condition unknown)
Nationalmuseet, Copenhagen
National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen
Oriental Institute, University of Chicago
Royal Ontario Museum of Archaeology, Toronto
Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis
Skulpturensammlung, Dresden
Staatliches Museum Ägyptischer Kunst, Munich
State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
Swedish National Museum, Stockholm
Tyndale House, Cambridge
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond
Virginia Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary, Alexandria
Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin
Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford
Walters Art Museum, Baltimore
William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City
Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown
Weingreen Museum of Biblical Antiquities, Trinity College
Worcester Art Museum, Worcester
Yale University, New Haven

Private Collections:
Anonymous (3)
Fred Elghanayan, New York,
Collection Merrin, New York
Collection Samuel Josefowitz, Lausanne

A joint project of the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of Oxford, and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin has completed a comprehensive list of the known collection items with corresponding drawings to the Assyrian reliefs where information has been available.  This online reference may be useful in determining more details of what was gone before vs. what might have been cut away for illicit sales prior to the site's detonation.

Another excellent research project for review materials is the  "Materialities of Assyrian Knowledge Production: Object Biographies of Inscribed Artefacts from Nimrud for Museums and Mobiles".   Funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AH/K003089/1) it was based at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science (HPS), University of Cambridge, UCL, the British Museum's Department of the Middle East, and the Babylonian Section of Penn Museum. 

In final comment, this might be an opportune time to underscore that the site does live on, primarily in the hearts and souls of the people of Iraq, but also tangibly, albeit widely dispersed. 

By Lynda Albertson







October 9, 2014

Thursday, October 09, 2014 - ,, No comments

Parthenon Galleries, British Museum: A selection of friezes and sculptures from the Temple to Athena

by Catherine Schofield Sezgin,
 ARCA Blog Editor

London, October 8 - I had a transcendental experience with art yesterday. I spent more than 2 1/2 hours looking at friezes and sculptures from the Temple of Athena -- those pieces that remain after more than 2,400 years, that once adorned the Parthenon (447 and 432 BC) in Greece. It was my first visit to the British Museum, the first time I'd seen the "Elgin Marbles" and the experience was powerful. I visited the three Greek temples of Paestum in 2009 and felt awed by their grandeur so my first reaction was that I would have liked to have seen these pieces as they were installed in Athens until severely damaged (by a Venetian commander) in the 17th century.  My second reaction was as a feminist -- for the profound loss for two sculptures crucial to worshipping the goddess of war and wisdom (as described in the British Museum's excellent audio guide) -- the sculpture of Athena's birth from the head of Zeus and the "colossal statue" of Athena Parthenos constructed in gold and ivory by Phidias, the most famous sculptor of all antiquity. I would have liked my 14-year-old daughter and her best friend to have seen this now lost statue of Athena by Phidias -- for them to witness the power and beauty of a woman as portrayed even in ancient times.

The British Museum provides information about the controversy about the Parthenon sculptures or the "Elgin Marbles" on its website here. I'll just share with you photos of some of the pieces in the exhibit which humbled me with their beauty and perseverance.

Even the back side of these attached sculptures were finished.

These sculptures were reacting to the birth of Athena
from the head of Zeus which would have been to the right.

Each reaction is carefully shown in the position of body.

My favorite -- Aphrodite's reaction to the birth of Athena.

British Museum, South Metope XXVII: "This is composition-
ally one of the most impressive metopes. A centaur pressing
a wound in his back tries to escape, while the Lapith restrains
him and prepares to deliver a final blow. The Lapith's cloak
fans out to provide a dramatic backdrop."

British Museum, South Metope IV: "The heads of these
figures were taken by Capt. Hartmann, a member
of the Venetian army that occupied Athens in 1688.
 They are now in Copenhagen." 

British Museum, South Metope V: "The centaur's head is in
Würzburg."

At the end of my visit I noticed two signs of gratitude to Barbara and Lawrence Fleischman for their financial support in 1998 for the Parthenon Galleries. Mr. Fleischman, an art dealer, also donated a large portion of his antiquities collection (collected over 40 years) to the J. Paul Getty Villa in Malibu (see his obituary in The New York Times). The plaques read:
The trustees record their thanks to Lawrence A. Fleischman for a generous grant to renew this gallery in 1998. 
The trustees record their thanks to Barbara G. Fleischman for a generous grant to this gallery in 1998.

Sign thanking L. Fleischman above door.

Sign thanking B. Fleischman above another door.


September 26, 2013

Thursday, September 26, 2013 - ,, 1 comment

Review of theater screening of "Pompeii from the British Museum": expert guides provide insight to exhibit

by Eleanor Edwards, Special Contributor

Last night, September 25, theaters all around the United States screened "Pompeii from the British Museum", an 'exclusive private view of a major exhibition'. The show was excellent and in many ways better than the “in person” experience.

This special screening did not include the shoulder to shoulder crowd experience of visiting the British Museum in person. Instead the audience was shown around the empty exhibit space by leading experts in various fields related to the study of the Roman Empire.

The exhibit emphasizes the people of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The objects exhibited are meant to evoke an appreciation of both the ordinary working people and the more privileged. What did these people think about, how did they get ready for the day, what did they eat, how did they pass their leisure hours, how did they live in their houses? The exhibit itself is laid out like a typical home of a more privileged Pompeiian.

The introduction to the exhibit was made by Neil MacGregor, the Director of the British Museum, who pointed out the interesting motif of the dog that runs throughout the exhibit and serves as a common reference between the viewer and the residents of this ill-fated household.

Mary Beard, Classicist from Cambridge, took us around the the cubiculum (bedroom) and discussed the more intimate thoughts, dreams and desires of the residents. This provided a brief look into the possible ways of looking at particular objects of art displayed in the home (much made of the propensity for “willy waving” among the men of the time). But what Professor Beard brought to this experience was her unbridled enthusiasm and excitement for the subject. It was great fun to look at the exhibit with her.

At the British Museum in August, I found it was almost impossible to see and take in the relevance of each object so one tact was to choose a few favorites to swoop in on when there was a break in the crowd. For me those were the kitchen items. This behind the scenes presentation certainly added to my previous enjoyment of those objects when taken around by the Italian chef Giorgio Locatelli. We could really appreciate the beauty of everyday objects like a colander and the ferocity of the dormouse, a favorite delicacy.

One area that I completely missed was the display of items found in the drains of Herculaneum. Being show these items by the resident drains expert, Professor Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, brought real immediacy to what had been an overlooked display. He also brought up the controversial question regarding the continued excavation of the site versus the view that, for now, the focus should be the conservation of what has been already uncovered.

In 90 minutes, through both reenactments and expert analysis, Pompeii from the British Museum provided an engaging look at this exhibit. While not every item is examined, and a few favorites are notably missing, this event is well worth attending whether of not you have been to the British Museum exhibit.

The British Museum also has an application for iPhones and iPads, Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum. Here's a link to the museum's exhibit which closes on September 29.

Fathom Events will show "Vermeer and Music" at theaters on October 10, 2013.

September 25, 2013

Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - ,,, No comments

Fathom Events Presents "Pompeii from the British Museum" in US Theaters Tonight Only

"Pompeii from the British Museum" will be screened in dozens of theaters throughout the United States tonight. Here's a link to Fathom Events to purchase tickets. The British Museum produced this film about their exhibit, "Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum" (closing September 29). Here's a link to the worldwide listings of this event.

December 2, 2011

Friday, December 02, 2011 - ,,, No comments

Museo Archeologico di Amelia: Artifacts from Amelia Spread to Other Collections in 19th century

Mars attacking (Rome, National Etruscan
 Museum of Villa Giulia)
by Catherine Schofield Sezgin, ARCA Blog Editor-in-Chief

I attended ARCA's Postgraduate Program in International Art Crime Studies in 2009, fell in love with our host town, Amelia, and have returned each subsequent summer for ARCA's International Art Crime Conference. However, I have never spent enough time in the archaeological museum to appreciate or learn about the town's history. Last July I abandoned my usual table on the patio of Bar Leonardi and not only dawdled for a few hours in the museum, but photographed many objects and the associated information that had kindly been translated into English. Then I uploaded the photographs into my computer and forgot about them until two weeks ago. In support of the museum's work, I will be offering a series of blog posts on sections of the antiquity section and later the art gallery.

Amelia's collection of cultural property displayed in the Museo Archeologico di Amelia (Archaeological Museum of Amelia) began with an excavation of a Roman theatre along Via di S. Elisabetta in 1820.

A "significant number of Amelia artifacts (bronze and lead votive objects)" according to the museum were "put on the antiquarian market and ended up in Italian and foreign museums and collections."

Statuette of Demeter (London, British Museum)
A partial list from the museum includes the following:
A group of small votive bronze objects from the Archaic period is preserved at the National Etruscan Museum of Villa Giulia in Rome (before it was at the Museum Kircherianum). 
A bronze statuette depicting Demeter on a chariot is from the collection at the British Museum in London. 
The 19th century excavations conducted in Pantanelli unearthed a series of votive figurines cut from lead foil. They were purchased by Baron E. de Meesert de Ravestein prior to 1864 for his collection and are now in Brussels. 
A bronze laminetta engraved in epichoric Umbrian characters on both sides (opistographic), found near Santa Maria in Canale, is currently preserved at the National Museum in Naples. The chain of events that ultimately brought the tablet to Naples began in 1788, when it came into the hands of the Benedictine abbott G. Di Costanzo, who purchased it from the Amelia antiquarian G. Venturelli. Di Costanzo then gave it to Cardinal Stefano Borgia, whose heirs sold it to the Bourbon Museum in Naples in 1817. 
An Imperial marble altar and two inscriptions are at the Vatican Museum. 
The altar, dedicated to the goddess Fortuna by Curiatus Cosanus, is now in Florence. In the 16th century, it was documented in the Church of Santa Firmina. It was then taken to Spoleto and is now part of the Bardini Collection.

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