Satala Aphrodite. Case Study

The Satala Aphrodite is a Hellenistic bronze head displayed in a wall mounted glass case over a ventilation grille near the south entrance to room 22 on the ground floor of the British Museum. Its current location and curatorial display reveal little of the complex route by which the head came to be a part of the Museum or of the importance ascribed to it at the time of its acquisition. The case study gathers material from the Museum archives to tell the story of the Satala head’s acquisition and shed light on the context of its original provenance. This study could be expanded at a later date to explain how the archive material could be linked back to the online collection

Collecting practices in the Ottoman Empire

Collecting Practices in the Ottoman Empire 1800-1912 ​​ ​​In order to engage with an ever emerging amount of restitution requests and understand their future in an increasingly globalised world, it is important for museums to understand the precise history of their collections.The British Museum is keen to understand the policies that guided its collecting activity in the 19th and early 20th century, to understand that history and to actively engage in conversation regarding the public value of the collections. These histories are complex, there is no one fits all approach, but often methodologies of collecting changed according to the different historical moments. A pilot in collaboration with the British Museum Archives seeks to understand the precise use of diplomacy in the procurement of antiquities in the territory of the former Ottoman Empire across those different historical moments. It seeks to assess how the methodology of collecting pieces evolved and modified according to the different political circumstances, international trends and the multiple personalities in charge at the Museum. ​​This research has the potential to enable the Museum to address increasing demands of restitution and activism from indigenous communities, pairing with academics and other European institutions to discuss and find the most durable and effective way to open up its history and set the standard for institutional transparency in relation to the provenance of its collections.​​ The paper will present the result of the pilot and the history of a selection of pieces across 4 different historical times to explain concretely how generalisation is impossible and provenance history is critical when trying to understand the past to reassess the future

Citizenship and Rights, a Reflection on the Consequences of Brexit

During the 2016 referendum on EU membership, Brexit was sold as the ultimate example of democracy, "taking back control #of borders, laws and money. Britain could "have its cake and eat it#: enjoy all the benefits already acquired without having to pay for membership or respect the "rules of the club#. EU nationals resident in the UK and their "ex-pat #British counterparts in Europe were denied participation in this critical vote on their future. Hostile environment immigration policies normalised xenophobic sentiment and set the backdrop to the Brexit vote. European Citizenship came with significant benefits and rights which were lost on 31 December 2020 at the conclusion of the transition period, but a lack of information means that most people in Britain have yet to fully understand the implications of their vote or the rights that they have forfeited

Cultural Diplomacy in the Acquisition of the Head of Satala for the British Museum

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

The Plunder of Maqdala: Ethical Concerns Around Belongings and Ancestral Remains in Museums

During the colonial period, museums did not just passively benefit from the plunder of human remains and culturally sacred items. When Britain sent a punitive military expedition to Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) in 1863, it was accompanied by Richard Holmes, a staff member of the British Museum, whose purchase of loot from the expeditionary force institutionalised the plunder of cultural heritage. His inclusion in the expeditionary force was carefully planned, though the belongings he took — mainly manuscripts, religious items and emblems of power belonging to the Ethiopian royal family — were not the intended focus of his participation. Whilst the UK’s 2004 Human Tissue Act had a beneficial impact on the treatment of human remains in museums, objects belonging to colonised people are often still positioned as artworks or artefacts, evidencing ignorance of the deep personal and spiritual links that connect them back to their communities of origin. This article draws on our professional experience of curation and research in museums and libraries, as well as the impact of ICOM’s new Museum Definition on our practice. Joint research on the Maqdala expedition led us to question assumptions about the legacy of empire in museums and to scrutinise unexpected connections in the history of museum collections. This article addresses the problematic relationship between collecting and imperial power, the false dichotomy between ‘artefacts’ (belongings) and ‘human remains’ (ancestors) and the need to decolonise collections through further research and the recognition of ongoing cultural and physical violence

Planned Plunder, the British Museum, and the 1868 Maqdala Expedition

In 1863, Emperor Tewodros II of Abyssinia (present-day Ethiopia and Eritrea) took a British consul hostage; five years later, the British sent a punitive expedition. This military expedition continued the brutal tradition of earlier ones and shaped later campaigns in Sudan and West Africa in the 1890s. Typically, a large contingent of non-military personnel accompanied these expeditions and the 1868 expedition to Maqdala was no different. What was unique for Maqdala was the inclusion of a member of staff from the British Museum. We argue that a letter from Charles Thomas Newton, keeper of the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, to Sir Roderick Murchison, the president of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS), illustrates that the plunder of cultural heritage was planned. We also argue that the plunder did not go to plan. The inclusion of a man from the museum made this expedition unique in the museum's history. The acquisition of these objects through colonial violence constitutes a strong moral reason for their repatriation from the British Museum and the numerous institutions in which they are dispersed. Understanding the planning involved in their plunder illustrates the entanglement of politics and imperialism with scientific and cultural institutions that constituted the backbone of Victorian Britain

Continuity and change in the British diplomatic service in the Levant: The ‘Levantine’ question and the lure of antiquities

In this article, we examine the organization of the British diplomatic service in the Ottoman Empire and analyse its transition from a prestigious, privately financed, highly individualized public office to a state-funded, but fragmented and poorly paid body. We survey the idiosyncratic character of the diplomatic apparatus set up by the Levant Company to serve its business pursuits, infiltrate local society and obtain political favours. In 1825 the Foreign Office replaced the Levant Company officers with public servants who had no ties or affinities with Levantine society. However, to obtain antiquities for the British Museum, the Foreign Office had to turn once again to British Levantines. Based on our earlier published work, 1  as well as recent unpublished archival research, this paper explains how the collecting of antiquities in the Ottoman Empire relied entirely on the British diplomatic service and its Levantine connection

An advantageous proposition

When in 1820 consul Henry Salt offered to sell Egyptian antiquities, including the Seti sarcophagus, to the British Museum, the British government was unprepared for the substantial investment required. The subsequent acquisition of the sarcophagus by John Soane was the catalyst in changing the government attitude to collecting antiquities for the national museum. The acceptance of a proposal made in 1835 by Giovanni D’Athanasi to excavate in Egypt turned the government from a passive recipient into an active collector of antiquities for its museum. These episodes provide insights into the mechanisms by which the British Museum’s collection was established. They also illuminate how collecting by a national museum established an object habit that linked antiquities acquisitions, nationalism, and restitution demands in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries

I nostri figli, le nostre scuole, il nostro futuro: la scuola del futuro parte dall’Aquila

Policy paper La scuola è luogo di cittadinanza, soprattutto in una città che ha bisogno di cittadini “nuovi”, consapevoli del passato e portatori di futuro. Le nuove generazioni hanno il diritto di formarsi in spazi sicuri e ben organizzati, che consentano lo sviluppo dei migliori processi di apprendimento ed insegnamento, di partecipazione, di socializzazione e di acquisizione di sensibilità, valori da spendere positivamente nella costruzione della città futura