Javascript must be enabled to continue!
Cultural diplomacy in the acquisition of the head of the Satala Aphrodite for the British Museum
View through CrossRef
Abstract
The current location and curatorial display at the British Museum of a Hellenistic bronze head of the goddess Anahita in the guise of Aphrodite, found at Satala (Asia Minor), reveal little of the importance ascribed to it at the time of its acquisition, or of the complex route by which the head came to form part of the museum’s collection. Detailed examination of archival documentation relating to this acquisition shows how, despite nineteenth-century Ottoman and Italian legislation in relation to antiquities, this head and its accompanying bronze hand were found in the province of Armenia, sold by an Ottoman diplomat to a private collector in Rome and used to secure the sale of a collection of jewellery to the British Museum. The journey of the head illustrates the importance of diplomatic channels, the workings of the nineteenth-century European trade in art and antiquities and how museums, diplomats and collectors were able to assemble collections.
Title: Cultural diplomacy in the acquisition of the head of the Satala Aphrodite for the British Museum
Description:
Abstract
The current location and curatorial display at the British Museum of a Hellenistic bronze head of the goddess Anahita in the guise of Aphrodite, found at Satala (Asia Minor), reveal little of the importance ascribed to it at the time of its acquisition, or of the complex route by which the head came to form part of the museum’s collection.
Detailed examination of archival documentation relating to this acquisition shows how, despite nineteenth-century Ottoman and Italian legislation in relation to antiquities, this head and its accompanying bronze hand were found in the province of Armenia, sold by an Ottoman diplomat to a private collector in Rome and used to secure the sale of a collection of jewellery to the British Museum.
The journey of the head illustrates the importance of diplomatic channels, the workings of the nineteenth-century European trade in art and antiquities and how museums, diplomats and collectors were able to assemble collections.
Related Results
The Riverside Roads of Culture as a Tool for the Development of Aitoloakarnania
The Riverside Roads of Culture as a Tool for the Development of Aitoloakarnania
Cultural routes are a well-established development tool to highlight and promote a region’s cultural and environmental reserve, as well as having a positive impact on a region’s so...
The United Nations and the Soviet Union: Diplomacy and Propaganda in the Twilight of the Cold War
The United Nations and the Soviet Union: Diplomacy and Propaganda in the Twilight of the Cold War
Referring to the preparation of Soviet diplomacy for the 3rd session of the UN General Assembly, this article examines the process behind the development of the political line of t...
Negotiating Cultural Identity in The Inheritance of Loss
Negotiating Cultural Identity in The Inheritance of Loss
This paper seeks to explore three modes of cultural identification presented in Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss. With three intersecting plotlines, the novel focuses on three...
The acquisition of gestural timing
The acquisition of gestural timing
Motor plans are complex and consist not only of constriction location and degree, but also gestural timing. For children to acquire adult-like speech, they need to acquire complex ...
Small head movements increase and colour noise in data from five video-based P–CR eye trackers
Small head movements increase and colour noise in data from five video-based P–CR eye trackers
AbstractWe empirically investigate the role of small, almost imperceptible balance and breathing movements of the head on the level and colour of noise in data from five commercial...
Cross-cultural Encounters in Urban Festivals: Between Liberation and Domination
Cross-cultural Encounters in Urban Festivals: Between Liberation and Domination
This paper is part of a wider research project on Paradoxical Spaces: Encountering the Other in Public Space that explores how cultural difference is practiced and negotiated in di...
Venus or Diana from Mediana
Venus or Diana from Mediana
During the archaeological investigation of the villa with peristyle in
Mediana in 2011, a marble head, which may have been the head of a goddess,
was discovered. Her face and...
MARBLE SCULPTURES FROM PHTHIOTIS IN THE LAMIA ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM
MARBLE SCULPTURES FROM PHTHIOTIS IN THE LAMIA ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM
Marble statuettes, now in the Lamia Archaeological Museum, that date to the Classical and above all the Hellenistic periods, and a Hellenistic votive relief depicting Herakles are ...