P. Piacentini, 2013/14. The antiquities path: from the Sale Room of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, through dealers, to private and public collections : a work in progress. In: EDAL. EGYPTIAN & EGYPTOLOGICAL DOC. ARCH. LIB., vol. 4, p. 105-130, pls XII-XXI. Pontremoli Editore, ISSN: 2038-2286

PONTREMOLI EDITORE EDAL IV . 2013 / 2014 ISSN 20382286 ___________________ © 2013 PONTREMOLI EDITORE ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Libreria Antiquaria Pontremoli via Vigevano 15 . 20144, Milano (MI), Italy tel +39 02 58103806 . fax +39 02 58102157 www.libreriapontremoli.it . info@libreriapontremoli.it _______________________________ & DESIGN Giacomo Coronelli LAYOUT PRINTED BY Bianca & Volta, Truccazzano (MI), Italy ___________________________________________ PRICE OF THE SINGLE ISSUE € 95 institutions · € 65 privates VAT INCLUDED. SHIPPING COSTS ARE APART FOR PURCHASE AND ANY INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT US EGYPTIAN E DA L & EGYPTOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS, ARCHIVES, LIBRARIES IV . 2013 / 2014 E DA L DIRECTOR & EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Patrizia Piacentini EDITORS Laura Marucchi Christian Orsenigo SCIENTIFIC BOARD Manfred Bietak (Wien) Peter Der Manuelian (Boston, MA) Christopher J. Eyre (Liverpool) Jochem Kahl (Berlin) Antonio Loprieno (Basel) Jaromír Málek (Oxford) Laure Pantalacci (Lyon) Pierluigi Panza (Milano) Stephen Quirke (London) Pascal Vernus (Paris) HONORARY BOARD John Baines (Oxford) Sergio Donadoni (Roma) Anna Maria Donadoni Roveri (Roma) Nicolas Grimal (Paris) William Kelly Simpson (Katonah, NY) EDAL IV . 2013 / 2014 is a peer-reviewed journal EDAL IV 2013 / 2014 · FORMING MATERIAL EGYPT PROCEEDINGS OF THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE LONDON, 20-21 MAY, 2013 edited by Patrizia Piacentini, Christian Orsenigo, Stephen Quirke e da l i v · 20 13 / 20 14 — forming material egypt Proceedings of the International Conference, London, 20-21 May, 2013 table of contents Editorial. From the formation of Egyptological archives to Forming Material Egypt Patrizia Piacentini page 11 Forming Material Egypt: from conference to publication in changing times Stephen Quirke 13 The Egypt Exploration Society and Forming Material Egypt: notes for the future Chris Naunton 23 Forming Material Egypt: the support of the Friends of the Petrie Museum Lucia Gahlin and Jan Picton 27 re - connecting with archaeological context : sites and databases Re-materialising “state formation”: Hierakonpolis 2.0 Richard Bussmann 31 Collecting groups: the archaeological context of the late Middle Kingdom Cemetery a at Harageh Gianluca Miniaci 43 The history and research of the Naqada Region Collection Geofrey J. Tassie and Joris van Wetering 61 8 e da l i v · 2 0 13 / 2 0 14 finds distribution and public archaeology Museum collections and moving objects in Egypt: an approach to amend the current situation Maher A. Eissa and Louay M. Saied page 81 John Rankin and John Garstang: funding Egyptology in a pioneering age Anna Garnett 95 The antiquities path: from the Sale Room of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, through dealers, to private and public collections. A work in progress Patrizia Piacentini 105 Re-excavating Egypt: unlocking the potential in ancient Egyptian collections in the uk Margaret Serpico 131 Between the ield and the museum: the ongoing project of archaeological context Alice Stevenson 143 archaeological site management and conservation Storage issues in Egyptian heritage: risk assessment, conservation needs and policy planning Abdelrazek Elnaggar 155 Materiality and the observer: active and passive archaeologies David Jefreys 165 e da l i v 9 · 2 0 13/2 0 14 Threats to Egyptian rock-art Francis Lankester page 171 The Horemheb & Saqqara Project of the Archaeological Museum of Bologna Daniela Picchi 179 Challenges and dangers of networking museums databases Tarek Sayed Tawik 189 Abandoned Nubian villages in Upper Egypt: material culture in social anthropological ield studies Lilli Zabrana 197 theory and history Modern “authoritative interpretations” and the (mis)production of the Ptolemaic past Heba Abd el-Gawad 209 The planned past: policy and (ancient) Egypt William Carruthers 229 Forming and performing material Egypt: archaeological knowledge production and presentation Paolo Del Vesco 241 Egyptology in the shadow of class Wendy Doyon 261 Find as theme: re-uniting “expert” and “public” agendas in Egyptian collections Stephen Quirke 273 10 e da l i v · 2 0 13 / 2 0 14 conclusions Back to the future: policy and practice. Final open-loor discussion, chaired by Okasha El Daly. Summary from notes by Birgit Schoer and Stephen Quirke Stephen Quirke page 289 The object-interruptive: relections on the social resonance of the archaeological ind Ayman A. El-Desouky 301 Afterword from Cairo January 2014 Tarek Sayed Tawik 313 List of Authors 319 Plates 321 finds distribution and public archaeology The antiquities path: from the Sale Room of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, through dealers, to private and public collections. A work in progress Patrizia Piacentini ( plates xii – xxi ) Notes, letters and photographs related to Egyptian antiquities that found their way into public or private collections, or whose location is unknown at present, are housed in the Loret, Quibell, Varille and Bothmer archives preserved in the Università degli Studi di Milano. A research project on these objects, now scattered around the world, started with the examination of the copy of some pages of the register of the Cairo Museum Sale Room. Most likely opened at the end of 1892 (even if oicial sales of objects took place since around 1883), it was active until 1979. This register provides the photographs, a short description, and the names of the buyers of items that were judged saleable, as “duplicates” of objects already present in the Collection. Combining information from archives and museums it is now possible to follow the path of numerous objects: of some of them, we can identify the owner(s), and eventually ind out where they are kept at present; of others, sold to public museums, it is possible to establish the original provenance and trace their way from the ancient sites to the Cairo Museum Sale Room, and then to antiquities dealers, auctions, diferent owners, up to their inal location. 1. Starti ng p oi nts and obj e c ti ve s In the Loret, Quibell, Varille and Bothmer archives preserved at the Università degli Studi di Milano, we found many notes, letters, and photographs related to Egyptian antiquities that found their way into public or private collections, or whose location is unknown at present.1 A research project on these items now scattered around the world has been initiated by the Chair of Egyptology of the Università degli Studi di Milano, with multiple objectives: · to better understand what kind of objects were chosen by the Egyptian Antiquities Service to be donated, sold, or included in the “partage” over more than one century (mid 19th-mid 20th centuries). On the other side, to better understand what kind of items/monuments were directly 1. On the Egyptological archives of the University of Milan, cf. p. piacentini (ed.), Egypt and the Pharaohs: From the Sand to the Library. Pharaonic Egypt in the Archives and Libraries of the Università degli Studi di Milano, « Le vetrine del sapere » 9, Milano 2010, in particular the chapter The Egyptological Archives of the Università degli Studi di Milano, pp. 61-114. 106 e da l i v · 2 0 13 / 2 0 14 requested from the Egyptian Antiquities Service by museums to increase their collections;2 · to rediscover objects that are not present in bibliography, and remained unknown until now since mentioned in unpublished archival documentation only; · to integrate data on objects known, for example kept in museums, but for which provenance, discoverer, or even their ind spot in a tomb, temple, or other site were unknown; · to integrate or make known to museum curators and scholars the identity of collectors who could have owned a speciic object, including antiquities dealers and auction houses; · as a consequence, to examine the types and the price of the objects sold at the Sale Room of the Cairo Museum, and at the auction houses, as often indicated in Bothmer’s notes; · to create an open database of collectors and private collections of Egyptian antiquities, itemised through archival documents, auction catalogues, and previously compiled lists.3 The irst example of document used for this research is the copy of part of the Register of the Cairo Museum Sale Room, kept in the Bernard V. Bothmer archives in Milan. The pages he photographed concern the sales of the year 1962 (pl. xii, 1). This Register contains the photographs, a short description, and the names of the buyers of items that were judged saleable, as “duplicates” of objects already present in the Collection, or considered “useless”, as stated by Egyptologists working for the Antiquities Service from the end of the 19th until the mid-20th centuries, and even in the program for the construction of the new Museum in Cairo published in 1894.4 2. 3. 4. On some speciic points of the present contribution, see A. maget, Collectionisme public et conscience patrimoniale. Les collections d’antiquités égyptiennes en Europe, Paris 2009. See e. g., <http://www.griith.ox.ac.uk/gri/list_of_collections.pdf>; <http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/ provenance/sales_catalogs_iles.html>; <http://www.marquesdecollections.fr>; <http://www.artic.edu/ databases>. gouvernement égyptien, Programme du concours pour l’érection d’un Musée des antiquités égytiennes au Caire, Le Caire 1894, p. 7; cf. also F.ll. griffith, Progress of Egyptology, in id. (ed.), Egypt Exploration Fund. Archaeological Report 1896-1897, London [1897], p. 24. 107 t h e a n t i Q u i t i e s pat h 2. T he hi stor y of the Sal e Room The history of the Sale Room can be written with the help of many sources, such as Museum guides and references in publications, private documents, correspondence of scholars working in those years or excavation journals, like those of James E. Quibell today in Milan (pl. xii, 2). In these notebooks, the Archaeologist speciied the objects chosen for the Sale Room, as we will see later. Other information can be gleaned from the registers of acquisition of Egyptian museums all over the world, as well as from interviews with persons who visited the Sale Room, bought objects there, or had direct contacts with the buyers. In January 1881, Gaston Maspero succeeded Mariette as Director of the Antiquities Service and of the Boulaq Museum. In August of the same year, Amelia Edwards wrote to Maspero suggesting him that thefts and robberies would probably be reduced if the Museum put on sale certiied objects, and that the travelers would prefer to buy their “souvenirs” at regulated prices at Boulaq rather than from locals.5 The decree of the 16th of May, 1883, stated that the antiquities of the Boulaq Museum, or that could be kept there or in other Museums created in the future were property of the Egyptian State and for this reason “inaliénables, insaisissables et imperscriptibles”.6 Nevertheless, Maspero, assisted by Émile Brugsch, started probably that same year to make a selection of the less signiicant pieces to sell, before entering them in the Boulaq collection, as diferent sources attest. Slowly, the Director put into practice the oicial sale of antiquities, with the purpose of increasing the inances of the Antiquities Service and of the excavations in particular. From June 1884, the sale of various objects and mummies is duly registered in the books of accounts kept 5. 6. Letter dated August 11, 1881, now kept in the archives of the Institut de France, ms 4006, folios 453-458. Cf. also É. david, Gaston Maspero 1846-1916: Le gentleman égyptologue, Paris 1999, pp. 134-135. A. khater, Le régime juridique des fouilles et des antiquités en Égypte, « r a p h » xii, Le Caire 1960, p. 281. 108 e da l i v by Brugsch.7 · 2 0 13 / 2 0 14 Flinders Petrie relates in his autobiography that the same month, arrived in Cairo at the end of his excavations at Tanis:8 Maspero was agreeable about the larger things that I produced, but he and Brugsch were greedy for small valuables; two good igures of apes, in sets of igures, were both taken, though I counted eighteen already in the Museum. A silver chain and various other nice things were also kept. Furthermore, Petrie writes:9 I was told that the things had been sold at the Museum, though only one was actually bought, it is probable that he [Brugsch] had bought the objects himself. Nevertheless, at Boulaq there was not yet a true “sale room” or, as somebody has written, a “Museum shop”.10 Instead, most of the objects not “necessary” for the collection or not yet registered were deposited near the entrance gate of the Museum and the “Cabinet du nazir” (marked k on the plan given by Maspero).11 This was probably the place where people interested in buying antiquities would go to choose them (pls xiii–xiv). In the Guide of the Museum, Maspero writes in 1883:12 La partie de la cour dans laquelle on pénètre, après avoir passé la grande porte d’entrée, sert de magasin provisoire à certaines pièces incomplètes ou nouvellement achetées, qui n’ont pas encore leur place marquée dans les galeries. 7. The books of accounts of the Antiquities Service, from June 1884 until January 1888, are now preserved in the archives of the Institut de France, ms 4052, folios 355-366. 8. W.M. flinders petrie, Seventy Years in Archaeology, London [1931], p. 51. For the “partage”, cf. also Ibidem, p. 72. 9. Ibidem, p. 59. 10. M.S. drower, Flinders Petrie. A Life in Archaeology, London 1985, p. 84, giving a personal interpretation of what Petrie exactly wrote, states that « Maspero and Brugsch looked over his inds and allowed him to take the large pieces, but he was disappointed that they took so many small objects for the Museum, ruefully imagining that Brugsch would add them to stock of the Museum shop for sale to tourists » (italic ours). 11. G. maspero, Guide du visiteur au Musée de Boulaq, Boulaq [Le Caire] 1883, plan s.n. 12. Ibidem, p. 7. t h e a n t i Q u i t i e s pat h 2.1. 109 Sennedjem, the mummies, and other antiquities for sale Some years later, on February 3, 1886, the day after the opening of the tomb of Sennedjem in Deir el-Medina ( t t 1), Maspero sent a letter to his wife Louise, describing the incredible richness of the funerary equipment found, and adding at the end:13 Une fois que nous aurons choisi tout ce qui est bon pour le musée, la vente des momies et des objets superlus nous rapportera au moins soixante guinées, peutêtre quatre-vingts qui passeront aux fouilles de Louxor et du Sphinx. Ç’aura donc été une bonne afaire de toutes les manières, bonne au point de vue scientiique, puisqu’elle nous a donné des monuments dont nous n’avions aucun spécimen, bonne au point de vue inancier, puisque non seulement les objets iniront par rien nous coûter, mais que nous aurons gagné assez d’argent pour pratiquer des fouilles nouvelles. Décidément, mon système est le bon, et j’ai bien fait de rompre avec la routine de Mariette, pour l’adopter. In an article devoted to the objects discovered in the tomb, Daressy described their irst location at the Museum, where Maspero and the oicials of the Service chose the objects to be kept and those that could be sold, and where people could probably see and select antiquities to buy:14 Tout ce que contenait la sépulture de Sen-nezem avait été transporté au Musée de Boulaq, qui malheureusement était trop petit pour lui donner place. Les objets les plus intéressants une fois exposés tant bien que mal dans les salles destinées au public, le surplus dut être déposé dans les magasins fort humides attenants aux bureaux des conservateurs, ou dans des chounehs poussiéreuses, ouvertes à tous les vents, seules resserres que possédât alors le Musée. En présence de ce fait, M. Maspero préféra se défaire d’une partie du trésor que de le laisser se détruire et, ayant reçu des ofres du Metropolitan Museum of Art de New-York pour l’achat d’un lot pris dans ce qu’il ne pouvait exposer, il accepta les propositions qui lui étaient faites. As a consequence, twenty-nine items from the tomb, including shabtis, shabti 13. For the text, see É. david (éd.), Gaston Maspero. Lettres d’Égypte. Correspondance avec Louise Maspero [18831914], Paris 2003, p. 144-145. In the transcription, the italic is ours. 14. M.G. daressy, La trouvaille de Sen-nezem. Objets séparés de l’ensemble, in « a s a e » 28 (1928), pp. 7-11, in particular pp. 7-9. 110 e da l i v · 2 0 13 / 2 0 14 and cosmetic boxes, jars, coins, mummy masks and board, a canopic chest, string of beads, and rings, were sold to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, together with other objects from diferent sites,15 as documented in the notes on provenance in the Museum iles too: « Sold to the Metropolitan Museum of Art by the Egyptian government in 1886 ».16 The coins of Tamaket,17 one shabti of Sennedjem and one of Khonsu, and a box of Ramose were sold to the Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung in Berlin, and many other items ended in numerous public and private collections.18 Maspero himself bought for his wife two shabtis and a shabti box — today at the Louvre — as well as another shabti nowadays at the Musée des beaux-arts in Lyon.19 Information on the sales can further be inferred by a passage of another letter by Maspero to his wife, dated May 21, 1886, that add details on the interest of selling the antiquities to inance the excavations:20 [ . . . ] je pense qu’il y a encore pour six mois de fouilles [au Sphinx] avant qu’on ait terminé. Le tout aura coûté entre quinze et vingt mille francs, dont environ quinze mille de la souscription spéciale, trois mille sur la souscription de Louxor, deux mille sur les fonds de vente des momies à Cesnola. Par parenthèse, je fais un nouvel envoi d’environ 4000 francs au Musée de New York; ce sera autant dans notre caisse, car l’année a été lourde, et je ne sais comment je me serais tiré d’afaire sans les ventes d’objets et de momies. The mummies mentioned here by Maspero are probably those sold to Luigi Palma di Cesnola during the same year 1886, to which the French archaeologist 15. id., La trouvaille de Sen-nezem, pp. 10-11; cf. also W.C. hayes, The Scepter of Egypt, ii, New York 1959, pp. 395-431. 16. See the objects from < http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/544700?rpp=20 &pg=1&ao=on&ft=Sennedjem&pos=2> to <http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collectio ns/561775?pos=34&rpp=20&pg=2&ao=on&ft=Sennedjem >. 17. daressy, La trouvaille de Sen-nezem, p. 8 note 1; M.G. daressy, La découverte et l’inventaire du tombeau de Sen-nezem, in « a s a e » 20 (1920), p. 160. 18. J.-L. podvin, Le mobilier funéraire de la tombe de Sennedjem, in « g m » 191 (2002), pp. 77-83; cf. also A. mahmoud [S. donnat (ed.)], Catalogue of Funerary Objects from the Tomb of the Servant in the Place of Truth Sennedjem (tt 1). Ushabtis, Ushabtis in Coins, Ushabti Boxes, Canopic Coins, Canopic Chests, Cosmetic Chests, Furniture, Dummy Vases, Pottery Jars, and Walking Sticks, Mainly from Egyptian Museum in Cairo and Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York, « Bibliothèque Générale » 37, Le Caire 2011. 19. Ibidem, p. 79 and notes 10-11. 20. The italics are ours. For the text, see david (éd.), Gaston Maspero. Lettres d’Égypte, p. 234. t h e a n t i Q u i t i e s pat h 111 alludes in two letters to his wife,21 as a major source of income for the Service together with other antiquities acquired by Cesnola on behalf of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.22 Maspero himself bought small objects from the Antiquities Service for his personal collection, as he writes regularly to his wife Louise between 1885 and 1886. Many of them are now housed in the Egyptian collection of the “Institut d’Égyptologie Victor Loret” in Lyons.23 2.2. Jacques de Morgan and the Sale Room at the Giza Palace The oicial sale of antiquities initiated by Maspero proved to be very interesting for the Service. For this reason, a Sale Room was opened in 1892 at the Giza Palace of Ismail Pasha, that became the location of the Egyptian Museum in the last decade of the 19th century (pl. xv). It occupied room 91 of the ground loor, accessible directly from outside, as can be seen in a beautiful photograph preserved in the Lacau collection in Milan, as well as in the plan of the Museum (pl. xvi, 1). Since the rooms 46-91 of the Giza Palace were inaugurated in autumn 1892,24 the oicial activity of the Sale Room almost certainly started in the same period. Wallis Budge, in his autobiography, relates of the intentions of de Morgan, in those years Director of the Antiquities Service, to open a Sale Room in the Museum. The English egyptologist writes:25 I had an interview with de Morgan, and I found him courteous, sympathetic and broadminded. He told me that he had not the least objection to the exportation of certain classes of antiquities (e.g., Greek papyri and inscriptions, Coptic papyri and vellum manuscripts and 21. Ibidem, pp. 177 and 216. 22. J.A. wilson, Signs & Wonders upon Pharaoh. A History of American Egyptology, Chicago - London 1964, p. 80; on Palma di Cesnola and the m m a see S. waxman, Loot. The Battle over the Stolen Treasures of the Ancient World, New York 2008, pp. 183-186. Cf. also the contribution by P. Del Vesco in the present volume. 23. J.-C. goyon, L’Égypte antique à travers la collection d’Égyptologie Victor-Loret de Lyon, Paris 2007, pp. 14-17. Goyon writes that Maspero “organisa des ventes publiques aux enchères à l’intention des musées étrangers et des particuliers” (italic ours) but this is just a misunderstanding of the operation of the Sale Room. 24. J. de morgan, Avant-propos, in [E. virey], Notice des principaux monuments exposés au Musée de Gizeh, Le Caire 1892, p. xviii. 25. E.A. wallis budge, By Nile and Tigris. A Narrative of Journeys in Egypt and Mesopotamia on Behalf of the British Museum between the Years 1886 and 1913, London 1920, ii, pp. 330-331 (italics ours). 112 e da l i v · 2 0 13 / 2 0 14 funerary inscriptions), always provided that they immediately found safe and secure deposit in the great national museums like the Louvre and the British Museum. […] He told me that he though it impossible to prevent clandestine digging for antiquities by the natives, and the smuggling of antiquities out of Egypt, for it was rumored that the representatives in Egypt of certain Powers sent antiquities home in their Foreign Oice bags. But he believed that it was possible to control the digging and to make the smuggling of antiquities unproitable [...]: He proposed to employ the staf of the Service of Antiquities in making excavations on a large scale on all the promising sites throughout the country, one after the other, and to transport all the objects found, both big and little, to the Museum in Cairo. Every unique object, of every kind, was to be reserved for the Museum in Cairo, and kept in the country, and these were to be registered and numbered and exhibited to the public as soon as possible. The remaining objects were to be carefully catalogued and priced, and the catalogue was to be printed and copies of it were to be sent to the Directors of National Museums and Libraries in Europe and America. He thought it probable that the directors of all museums maintained by grants of public money would prefer to spend their money in purchasing antiquities from the Museum in Cairo, especially as all diiculty about the exportation of their purchases would cease to exist. In this way museums would be able to obtain a regular supply of Egyptian antiquities at reasonable prices, and the Service of Antiquities could use the moneys received from their sales of antiquities in carrying on further excavations. [...] But [...] soon after the attempt was made to obtain the authority necessary to give it efect, [...] it met with invincible opposition on all sides, and [...] every dealer, both European and native, denounced it. It was regarded as a specious attempt on the part of the Government to monopolize the trade in “anticas,” and to kill all private dealing in them, and the Egyptians were furious. Despite these controversies, nourished by commercial and speculative reasons, and not by ethical ones, de Morgan oicially opens the Sale Room. In his memories, he mentions some turning points in the running of the sale of antiquities:26 Nous avions à Ghizeh une institution fort avantageuse, et très utile pour les musées et les collectionneurs étrangers, c’était la « salle des ventes ». Là, nous ofrions au public, à des prix très raisonnables, tous les doubles inutiles pour nos galeries, et les acheteurs étaient certians de ne point être trompés. Le classement des antiquités en magasin venait de produire un stock énorme pour la salle des ventes et il y avait, ma foi, de fort belles choses en très grand nombre. Je is alors faire trois collections et j’écrivis à Paris, à Londres, à Berlin, ofrant ces séries à des conditions très avantageuses. 26. A. jaunay (éd.), Mémoires de Jacques de Morgan 1857-1924 Directeur Général des Antiquités Égyptiennes Délégué général de la Délégation Scientiique en Perse. Souvenirs d’un archéologue, Paris 1997, pp. 380-381 (italics ours). t h e a n t i Q u i t i e s pat h 113 De Londres, le conservateur du Musée britannique me répondit en envoyant un chèque et en me priant de faire expédier la collection. Il lui eut été facile de faire examiner les antiquités, par un savant anglais alors en Égypte, il ne le it pas et s’en rapporta à ma loyauté. De Berlin, on me pria de faire l’envoi et peu après nous recevions le prix de la collection. De Paris, ce fut tout autre chose. On m’écrivit oiciellement des Beaux Arts, que les objets devaient être soumis à la Commission des Musées nationaux, que j’avais à les envoyer pour cet examen, et que ceux qui ne seraient pas acceptés me seraient retournés à mes frais. Bref, ces Messieurs de la rue de Valois, traitant le Directeur Général des Antiquités de l’Égypte, comme s’il eut été un vulgaire mercanti. Je n’ai ni envoyé les antiquités, ni répondu à cette lettre, dont le ton n’était pas convenable. Si ces gens avaient eu tant soit peu de tact, ils auraient chargé le directeur de l’École française d’archéologie du Caire, d’examiner la série. D’ailleurs, c’est avec M. Bouriant que j’avais composé cette collection, en y mettant, comme bien on pense, des objets fort intéressants. Cette façon d’envisager les choses ne datait pas de ce jour. Quelques années auparavant, M. Bouriant avait eu l’heureuse chance d’acquérir, pour une somme fort modeste, une série très importante de tablettes cunéiformes, dévouvertes à Tell el Amarna par des fouilleurs illicites, et il envoya ce lot au Louvre, réclamant seulement le remboursement de ses frais. Rue de Valois, on pensa tout de suite que le directeur de notre École du Caire voulait faire une afaire. L’on remit cependant ces tablettes à M. J. Oppert, qui ne pouvant les déchifrer, les déclara fausses, c’était plus simple. M. Bouriant qui les savait authentiques dut les céder au musée de Berlin. [...] Les fonds provenant de la salle des ventes s’ajoutaient au crédit de mon Service pour les fouilles et déblaiements. C’est là que j’allais moi-même chercher, en les payant, les objets dont j’avais besoin pour faire de petits cadeaux. The numerous foreigners visiting Egypt in the irst decades of the twentieth century were aware of the existence of the Sale Room and tried to keep in touch with de Morgan to buy some good antiquities (pl. xvi, 2). It is the case, for instance, of the traveler Joseph Déchelette. In a letter to Vincent Durand, written from Port Said on March 11, 1893, one can read:27 J’ai eu la chance de rencontrer dans la Haute Égypte Monsieur de Morgan, Directeur actuel du Service des Antiquités, 3ème successeur de Mariette-Bey. Je l’ai trouvé occupé à fouiller le temple de Kom-Ombo: c’est un homme fort aimable 27. M. gabolde, Catalogue des antiquités égyptiennes du Musée Joseph Déchelette, Roanne 1990, p. 31. 114 e da l i v · 2 0 13 / 2 0 14 et dont la recommandation m’a servi très utilement pour la réalisation d’un désir; j’avais en efet formé le projet de réunir quelques antiquités égyptiennes pour les ofrir au Musée de Roanne en souvenir de ce voyage. Mais, depuis que les Anglais passent par ici, les marchands ne vendent que des pièces fausses ou des pièces d’un prix très élevé. Je savais que par contre, le Musée de Gizeh avait une salle de vente qui ofre les plus complètes garanties, puisque on y trouve que des objets provenant de fouilles faites par l’administration. J’ai obtenu de Monsieur de Morgan une réduction de 50% sur les chifres marquées, ce qui me permet de rapporter une fort belle momie, dans son cercueil en bois peint et une assez grande quantité de petits objets, bronzes, amulettes, poteries, etc . . . In a very interesting letter dated February 8, 1894, de Morgan explains to Victor Loret, in Lyons at that time, that to get antiquities for the local museum he has either buy them, or to send books to increase the library of the Cairo Museum, or to carry on excavations:28 Pour obtenir des objets pour le Musée de Lyon le seul moyen est de les acheter car si je vous en donnais, tout le monde m’adresserait des demandes. Quant au droit de vous ofrir spontanément quoi que ce soit je ne l’ai pas et l’aurais-je que je n’en userais pas pour la raison que je viens de vous dire. Nous constituons en ce moment à Gizeh une Bibliothèque égyptologique, et si vous le désirez, nous pouvons faire un échange contre des antiquités. Mais il me faudrait savoir ce que vous désirez avoir. Momies d’hommes et d’animaux, statuettes funéraires, canopes vases etc... Nous ferons en sorte de vous traiter très largement mais nous serons tenus de vous faire payer l’emballage et l’expédition mon budget ne prévoyant pas ces sortes de dépenses. Envoyez moi donc je vous prie la liste de vos desiderata et je ferai en sorte de vous satisfaire. J’ai inauguré un système de fouilles qui nous rend de grands services. J’autorise les amateurs à fouiller eux-mêmes sous la surveillance d’un de mes employés payé aux frais du fouilleur à raison de 5£ par jour. Tous les objets sont apportés à Gizeh aux frais du fouilleur et partagés. Je ne me montre pas très diicile dans le partage et avec les amateurs je le suis bien moins qu’avec les marchants, bien entendu. Si donc vous connaissez quelqu’un qui puisse se livrer à une fouille pour vous ce sera encore un moyen de vous procurer pour vôtre musée bon nombre d’objets. Si même vous le désirez la fouille peut être faite par un de mes employés à vos frais les conditions resteront les mêmes et il ne sera pas besoin d’envoyer spécialement à 28. Biblioteca e Archivi di Egittologia, Unimi, fondo Loret, corrispondenza de Morgan. t h e a n t i Q u i t i e s pat h 115 grands frais quelqu’un de vôtre part. Voilà une combinaison qui jointe à des échanges de livres peut vous permettre d’acquérir à peu de frais une intéressante collection pour vôtre musée. The role of de Morgan in the sale of antiquities is mentioned also in the memories of Albert Nicole, who traveled in Egypt in 1896-1897, together with his father, the papyrologist Jules Nicole. Describing their arrival at the top of the Khufu pyramid, Albert writes:29 Arrivés en haut on nous ofrit le café traditionnel et des marchands de toutes sortes se joignirent aux guides pour vendre des antiquités. On m’avait prévenu et donné le mot de passe qui devait nous libérer comme par enchantement de tous ces importuns: « Je connais M. de Morgan, c’est à lui que j’adresse mes commandes ». 2.3. The super visors of the Sale Room Alessandro Barsanti, very active employee and archaeologist of the Antiquities Service,30 was the irst to be appointed “salesman” of the Museum, as Flinders Petrie writes in his memories in 1892.31 Barsanti died in 1917, and we still don’t know who was his immediate successor as supervisor of the Sale Room. Émile Brugsch too, as keeper of the antiquities in the Boulaq, Giza, and Cairo Museum, was very active in the sale of antiquities until his retirement in 1914, and had the authority to decide what objects could be legally exported to other countries. At some point, Maspero named him supervisor of the Sale Room. Apparently, he had a “bad role” in the falsiication of antiquities: some of them were sold with the oicial seal of the Museum.32 An interesting case is the work he carried on for Col. Anthony J. Drexel in 1895.33 The latter payed him 29. B. roth-lochner, Un voyage en Égypte (1896-1897). Extrait des souvenirs d’Albert Nicole, in Voyages en Égypte de l’Antiquité au début du xxe siècle (cat. of the exhib.), Genève 2003, p. 252. 30. On Barsanti, see M. bierbrier, Who Was Who in Egyptology, London 2012, p. 42-43; p. piacentini, Vassalli, Lodi, Barsanti, Botti: gli Italiani e i musei in Egitto nell’Ottocento, in S. einaudi, Viaggio in Egitto: l’Ottocento riscopre la terra dei faraoni (cat. of the exhib.), Torino 2011, pp. 61-67. 31. petrie, Seventy Years, p. 140. 32. J.J. fiechter, Faussaires d’Egypte, Paris 2009, pp. 85-90. 33. W.B. harer Jr., The Drexel Collection: From Egypt to the Diaspora, in S.H. d’auria (ed.), Servant of Mut: Studies in Honor of Richard A. Fazzini, « p d ä » 28, Leiden - Boston 2008, pp. 111-119, in particular pp. 111113. 116 e da l i v · 2 0 13 / 2 0 14 3000 $ for assembling a collection, which is probably the only one personally formed by Brugsch, that accordingly relects his own connoisseurship. We still don’t know who was the successor of Brugsch after 1914, but we are sure that in 1936 the function of “Responsable de la Salle de Vente” was held by Mohamed Hassanein, as attested by a photograph kept in the Lacau archives today in Milan, showing the personnel of the Service in that year, accompanied by their names and roles. 2.4. The Sale Room at the ne w Cairo Museum When the Museum moved to Midan Ismailya — now Tahrir, in the irst years of the Twentieth century, the Sale Room was located in room 56 of the ground loor, accessible from the western entrance, which leads today to the oices of the Direction (pls xvii-xviii).34 Many objects now kept in private collections or in public museums come from here. It is the case for three crates of Egyptian antiquities bought by Bonaventura Ubach in 1922 for the Museum Biblicum of the Montserrat Abbey, near Barcelona, including a xii dynasty coin and another dating back to the xxvi dynasty, complete with its mummy. They were accompanied by the authorization of the Antiquities Service for exportation, still kept in the Ubach archives. In addition, in the Catalog dels objectes exposats en el “Museum biblicum” del Monestir de Montserrat is clearly speciied that these objects were “Comprat al Museu del Caire l’any 1923”. In 1928, Ubach went to Egypt again. With the authorization of Lacau, Director of the Service, he visited the deposits of antiquities with Engelbach to choose some additional objects to buy.35 After long debates over the years on the strategy to be followed for the selling of the antiquities, the Sale Room was deinitely closed in November 1979, as stated by Bothmer and recently conirmed to me by Judge Achraf 34. p. piacentini, The Preservation of Antiquities. Creation of Museums in Egypt during the Nineteenth Century, in ead. (ed.), Egypt and the Pharaohs: From Conservation to Enjoyment. Pharaonic Egypt in the Archives and Libraries of the Università degli Studi di Milano, Milano 2011, pp. 3-42. 35. D. roure (ed.), Dietari d’un viatge per le regions de l’Iraq (1922-1923). P. Bonaventura Ubach, Montserrat 2010, p. 182; P. ramon tragan, Il Museum Biblicum di Padre Bonaventura Ubach e le piante dell’habitat delle Sacre Scritture, in A. actis caporale - e. d’amicone - e. giacobino - m. spini, Nei giardini del faraone, Torino 2013, pp. 80-91. t h e a n t i Q u i t i e s pat h 117 Al-Achmawi.36 Furthermore, until the Seventies, at the Cairo Museum dealers or collectors could bring antiquities for inspection on Thursday, and if the Museum oicials did not object, they could have them sealed and cleared for export.37 3. Anti q u i ti e s l e gal l y sol d and e x p orte d The creation of a Museum totally devoted to Egyptian antiquities and the regulation of exports, followed by a law proposal written by Gaston Maspero in 1902 and issued in 1912, did not prevent a great number of antiquities from being taken out of the country legally or illegally. Bernard V. Bothmer, in very interesting notes for a lecture on the art market wrote: « The moral aspects of such purchases have caused all of us a great deal of anxiety. Yet, we in museums preserve such treasures whereas in private collections they often disappear within a generation or two. . . ».38 Bothmer was very interested in the legal aspects of international trade of art and on illicit traic of cultural property, and his papers on the subject, preserved in Milan, deserve to be studied and published in the near future. I will not resume here all the diferent decrees or laws issued in Egypt from the time of Muhammad ‘Ali up to now, a subject on which good studies are available elsewhere,39 but I will touch only on some select points related to the Sale Room. At the dawn of the Twentieth century, the Sale Room was very active, and the « duplicates » found during the excavations were regularly sold to inance the activities of the Antiquities Service. On Mai 8, 1900, Maspero wrote to his wife:40 36. Personal comunication (April 30, 2013). 37. B.V. bothmer, A Letter from the Egyptian Organisation of Antiquities, and a Response, in « j fa » 10 (1983), pp. 104-105. 38. Biblioteca e Archivi di Egittologia, Unimi, fondo Bothmer. 39. khater, Le régime juridique des fouilles; a. al-achmawi, Sarikat Mashroua, Cairo 2012. 40. david (éd.), Gaston Maspero. Lettres d’Égypte, p. 249. 118 e da l i v · 2 0 13 / 2 0 14 […] la campagne de Sakkarah aura été heureuse, et elle nous aura fourni tant d’objets doubles à vendre qu’elle aura ini par ne coûter presque rien. To increase its income and try to reduce robberies and unfettered trade, the Antiquities Service decided to sell complete funerary chapels discovered in Saqqarah to foreign museums, as those in New York, Chicago, London, Berlin, Paris, Bruxelles. In the Archaeological Report of the eef for 1902-1903, one can read the motivations of such a decision:41 It is hoped that when such can be obtained at a moderate igure the directors of museums will be less eager to buy odd blocks and fragments broken out by robbers, and that so the robbers will give up their detestable trade. On the subject, Budge wrote in his memories:42 I had a long and very friendly interview with him [Maspero] in 1900, and discussed with him the possibility of acquiring several large objects which we needed in the British Museum to ill up gaps in the Collection. He said that it was quite impossible for him to bring to Cairo, still less to exhibit in the Egyptian Museum there, all the large objects which were at that moment lying in tombs, and which ought to be taken to some large Museum where they would be properly housed and preserved. He confessed that with his comparatively small budget and staf it was wholly impossible for him to protect all the tombs in the country. And he suggested that it would be far better for the antiquities, and certainly much more economical for the Trustees of the British Museum, if they were to buy direct from him, as Director of the Service of Antiquities, the large sarcophagi and mastabah doors which they required to complete their Collection. He was very anxious to make some arrangement of this kind with me, for, apart from his desire to see valuable antiquities safely housed in Europe and cared for, he needed all the money he could get to supplement his meagre grant for excavations. It was therefore not diicult to come to an understanding with him. And as a result of his liberal policy, I acquired the complete mastabah tomb of Ur-ari-en-Ptah [ . . . ] ; the ine mastabah door of Asa-ankh [ . . . ] ; one of the four granite pillars of the portico of the pyramid of King Unas [ . . . ] ; the basalt coin of Uahabra from “Campbell’s Tomb” at Giza [ . . . ] ; and the ine stone sarcophagus of Qem-Ptah [ . . . ] . 41. f.ll. griffith, Progress of Egyptology, in id. (ed.), Egypt Exploration Fund. Archaeological Report 1902-1903, London [1903], p. 12. 42. budge, By Nile and Tigris, ii, pp. 361-363. On the non-canonical way in which Budge acquired antiquities for the British Museum, see B. fagan, The Rape of the Nile, Cambridge ( m a ) 2004 (revised ed.), pp. 198-203. 119 t h e a n t i Q u i t i e s pat h Furthermore, in 1908, Quibell carefully annotated, in his journal intitled 19071910 (Nov.): Sent to Museum: Packing book (now in Milan), the boxes containing the blocks of the mastabas of Unisankh and Netjeruser acquired by the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. Detailed information can now be added to the documents kept in Chicago,43 to illustrate better when and how the blocks were sent to the Museum, and what was left behind.44 From Quibell’s Packing book, as well as from other sources, such as the pages of the Register of the Sale Room that we could see, or the inventories and archives of the Museums already checked, we can deduce that the objects sold could be of diferent kinds, like reliefs, architectural elements, ofering tables, coins, complete or fragmentary statues, statue heads or torsos, headrests, capitals (mostly Coptic), canopic vases, as well as stone or glass vessels, shabtis, weights, amulets and scarabs. Despite the opinion that the objects sold to public institutions were more important than those sold to private collectors or dealers, we can see in the Register of the Sale Room that the latter could buy very signiicant items too. 3.1. The Universal Exposition of Saint Louis, Missouri In 1904, Egypt took part in the Universal Exposition of Saint Louis.45 James Quibell was charged with the practical organization and installation of the exhibition, with the help of his wife and of a certain Miss Cox. Two large halls were devoted to the country in the Anthropology Building (pl. xix); Room 100 of the main loor, in particular, exhibited full size dioramas of daily life in ancient Egypt, that we can admire today in a series of photos kept in the Quibell archives in Milan.46 The igures were in plaster, but modeled on ancient statues, while their wigs and the furniture in the scenes were modern, but inspired by ancient 43. p. onderka, The Tomb of Unisankh in Saqqara and Chicago, Prague 2009. 44. On the mastaba chapels that the Antiquities Service sold to foreign museums, cf. E. brovarski, Epigraphic and Archaeological Documentation of Old Kingdom Tombs and Monuments at Giza and Saqqara, in N. thomas (ed.), The American Discovery of Ancient Egypt. Essays, Los Angeles 1996, pp. 34-36, 42. 45. On the signiicance and role of international exhibitions, see maget, Collectionnisme public et conscience patrimoniale, pp. 205-212. 46. The classiication and inventory of the Quibell collection of the Egyptological Archives of the Milan University is carried out at present by C. Orsenigo, thanks to a grant of the Schif Giorgini Foundation. 120 e da l i v · 2 0 13 / 2 0 14 objects; on the contrary, the beads of the jewels as well as implements in the hands of the igures or in the decoration of the scenes were ancient. In Room 101, many antiquities were shown. They are listed in the Oicial Catalogue of Exhibitors: among them, there are glass, faience and bronze vessels, pottery from Predynastic to Roman times, shabtis, a collection of beads, a New Kingdom coin and a Ptolemaic mummy, the chapel and the false-door of the mastaba of Kaipura (discovered by Mariette, then excavated by Quibell at Saqqara in 1903), the lid of a stone anthropoid coin, an Old Kingdom sarcophagus from Giza, and a series of casts of reliefs from the Cairo Museum.47 The cultural purpose became commercial at the end of the exhibition, with the sale of the antiquities. The most important monument, the mastaba, was acquired by John Wanamaker who donated it to the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the end of 1904.48 A rumour spread ten years before, that even the temple of Philae could be sold to the United States, shows how much people were interested in receiving Egyptian Antiquities in their country.49 4. Note s on the hi stor y of the “ p artag e ” of the obj e c ts di sc ove re d du ri ng e x cavati ons All types of objects on sale at the Cairo Museum were included also in the “partages,” but their importance often depended on chance, or on personal or political relationships between the excavators and the Director of the Antiquities Service.50 Nevertheless, it happened that foreign archaeologists exported objects even against a precise decision taken by the Egyptian authorities. It is the case for the “Chambre des ancêtres” or “Karnak King List” that Émile Prisse d’Avennes torn down from Karnak temple, despite ban by Egyptian authorities, 47. f.j.v. skiff, Oicial Catalogue of exhibitors. Universal Exposition St. Louis, U.S.A., St. Louis 1904, pp. 13891390. 48. d.p. silverman (ed.), Searching for Ancient Egypt. Art, Architecture, and Artifacts from the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Dallas 1997, pp. 170-175. 49. O.E., The Ghizeh Museum, in « The Times », March 27, 1894, p. 7. 50. See, e.g., M.L. bierbrier, The growth of museum collections, in « Museum International » 186, xlvii / 2 (1995), pp. 10-11. t h e a n t i Q u i t i e s pat h 121 in May 1843.51 In Prisse’s opinion, he acted in this way to “save” the monument from destruction. The blocks were sawn and crated in twenty-seven boxes. But, they could be shipped to France only in spring 1844, when after long debates Prisse obtained the permission from the Khedive for exporting “Objets d’histoire naturelle destinés au musée de Paris”.52 It was also illegal to export antiquities not previously checked by the Inspectors of the Service. In the years 1912-13, this matter became the subject of a controversy between Arthur Weigall, who was Inspector in Upper Egypt,53 and Gaston Maspero, since the latter usually allowed the Missions to take much more than half of the objects they found. In November 1912, Maspero illustrated the situation in a letter to his wife Louise:54 Il y avait deux afaires un peu délicates, dont l’une avait été soulevée par ce maladroit de Weigall. Celui-ci avait proposé de vendre les doubles du Musée, croyant qu’étaient doubles toutes les statues de Karnak, par exemple, qui représentent un homme accroupi: comme il y en a plus de deux cents, cela aurait rapporté une somme assez forte, et lui, Weigall, aurait été chargé de les aller vendre en Europe comme une sorte de commis voyageur scientiique. Lord Edouard Cecil et lord Kitchener avaient accueilli l’idée avec un certain enthousiasme. Je n’ai pas eu de peine à leur démontrer qu’elle était insoutenable: la loi du 16 Mai 1883 déclare que toutes les Musées de l’Egypte et tous les objets qu’ils contiennent font partie du domaine public de l’Etat, et que par conséquent ils sont inaliénables. Ils ont immédiatement cessé d’insister, mais ils se sont rabattus sur les doubles provenant des fouilles opéréses par des savants étrangers, et ils m’ont demandé pourquoi, ayant droit à la moitié exactement des objets trouvés, nous ne la prenions pas. Je leur ai répondu qu’en ce qui me concerne je ne demandais pas mieux que d’être moins généreux, mais qu’en revenant ici en 1899 l’usage était établi et que je l’avais respecté pour éviter au Gouvernement Egyptien des diicultés avec les Consuls Généraux: à plusieurs reprises, j’en avais conféré avec lord Cromer et Sir Eldon Gorst, qui m’avaient conseillé de ne pas insister. Kitchener m’a déclaré que, pour 51. The exportation ban issued by the “moudir” d’Esneh, dated 1843, is still preserved in the archives of the Société archéologique et historique de l’arrondissement d’Avesnes, Musée Villien, Miscellanées-Prisse d’Avennes n° 3; cf. G. andreu (éd.), Egyptologie le rêve et la science (cat. of the exhib.), Paris 1998, p. 28. Cf. also waxman, Loot, pp. 71-74. 52. É. delange, La Chambre des Ancêtres de Thoutmosis iii (1479-1425 av. J.-C.). De la Bibliothèque nationale au Musée du Louvre, in Visions d’Égypte. Émile Prisse d’Avennes (1807-1879) (cat. of the exhib.), Paris 2011, pp. 53-66, in particular p. 55. 53. J. hankey, A Passion for Egypt: A Biography of Arthur Weigall, London - New York 2001, p. 183. 54. david (éd.), Gaston Maspero. Lettres d’Égypte, pp. 531-532. 122 e da l i v · 2 0 13 / 2 0 14 lui, il pensait que les moment de ces concessions était passé, et que si ses collègues du Corps diplomatique lui transmettaient à ce sujet des réclamations de leur nationaux, il leur répondrait que la loi est la loi, et qu’il ne pouvait pas la changer. Je lui ai dit alors que, dans ces conditions, je n’avais plus rien à objecter, mais que je considérais qu’il serait peu loyal de laisser les fouilleurs commencer leurs travaux dans la croyance que le partage se ferait cette année de la même manière qu’il s’était fait au cours des années précédentes, et que je me considérais comme obligé de les prévenir du régime nouveau à mesure qu’ils se présenteraient. Il en est convenu: je les préviendrai donc, et je leur montrerai à l’appui une note de lord Edouard Cecil. Cela ne m’évitera pas de récriminations, bien entendu; mais les gros ennuis seront pour eux. Some months later, in 1913, Weigall wrote to Gardiner on the subject:55 [In Upper Egypt] I generally made the selection of what the Museum wanted, visiting the excavations for this purpose and going through the inds in the rough before they were cleaned or shown to advantage. I had no idea what the Cairo Museum required [ . . . ] in any one class of objects, for my work gave me very little opportunities for visiting the Museum; and I therefore made a quite casual selection [ . . . ] of what happened to strike me as being needed by us. Other excavators, considering that I was severe in my selection, preferred to take their inds to Cairo, where often only a few boxes where unpacked for inspection. Other excavators did not show their inds at all, but the selection was made at Cairo by means of photographs. The same year, Weigall wrote again to Gardiner about the objects kept by the Antiquities Service during the “partage,” that the excavator could eventually buy later from the Service:56 I quite agree that the excavator from whom we have taken our full half shall have the irst right to buy any object which we have taken from him but which we do not intend to exhibit. I had not put that clause in, simply because I imagined that the thing would happen naturally; for the excavator would naturally say during the division, « I say, let me have irst chance of buying that thing, » and we should naturally say, « Certainly. » However, I will put it in. In the “partage” even very small objects or fragments could be added. An example are the items coming from the tomb of Meketra ( t t 280), excavated by 55. hankey, A Passion for Egypt, p. 183. 56. Ibidem, p. 185. t h e a n t i Q u i t i e s pat h 123 the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in 1920. In addition to the famous models and papyri, sealings, ostraka, instruments, parts of coin, numerous small or very small relief fragments arrived at the m m a .57 Starting from 1919, Egypt was trying to become completely independent from England, and in 1923 the British permitted the drafting of an Egyptian constitution and allowed future parliamentary elections. The rules of the “partage” of antiquities changed too, and serious disputes arose between Pierre Lacau, Director of the Antiquities Service in those years, and Howard Carter when he inally made his great discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb. The reasons of the crisis were not only the destination of the incredibly rich materials found, but also the general political situation. At the end, as it is well known, the complete treasure of Tutankhamun stayed in Egypt, and Carter and Carnarvon got 34,971 Egyptian pounds in compensation of their excavation.58 In the popular Egyptian press, these issues were felt as a victory of the Egyptian people, and commonly linked to state sovereignty.59 In the following years, foreign archaeologists continued to apply to legally obtain part of the objects they discovered. In the Lacau collection of the Archives of the University of Milan, for example, we found some documents related to the excavations of George Reisner at Giza and his request for some objects for the Boston collection. On January 20, 1930, he sent to Engelbach from the Harvard Camp at Giza a list of his indings, as well as photographs and notes requested by Lacau. He closed the accompanying letter claiming that « Lacau has promised to push the division to a decision ».60 As a matter of fact, the latter decided to give Reisner some of the objects of the list, that are now legally part of the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, 57. Cf. <http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections?ft=meketre&rpp=20&pg=1>. 58. E. gady, Égyptologues français et britanniques en Égypte dans la première moitié du xxe siècle: une « Entente cordiale » ? , in D. cooper-richet - M. rapoport, L’Entente cordiale. Cent ans de relations culturelles franco-britanniques (1904-2004), Paris 2006, pp. 51-65, in particular p. 60 and note 53. 59. E. colla, Conlicted antiquities. Egyptology, Egyptomania, Egyptian Modernity, Durham - London 2007, pp. 199-210. 60. Biblioteca e Archivi di Egittologia, Unimi, fondo Lacau, corrispondenza Reisner. 124 e da l i v · 2 0 13 / 2 0 14 Boston. It is the case of the numerous fragments of the ofering table of Ankhaf (25-2-382.1-42, etc.), or the fragments of reliefs of the tomb g 7752 z (29-12-141).61 Although the Law 14 / 1912 allowed the division of inds between the Egyptian Government and the foreign archaeological missions, Pierre Lacau — Director of the Antiquities Service from 1914 to 1936 — was the irst to be very strict in applying it, giving the authorization to export only a very small number of items. This situation went on until the new Law 117 / 1983 was promulgated. This one prohibited the antiquities trade, while allowing the division of only 10 per cent of the newly discovered objects, exclusively for the purpose of scientiic research or museum display. In addition, the Egyptian Antiquities Authority had the right to make the irst selection from any discoveries. Finally, in 1988, a ministerial decree prohibited any division. The new modiied antiquities Law 3 / 2010 prohibited again the division and imposed stifer penalties on illicit traic.62 For the history of the discoveries and of the collections, the speciic content of the lists of “partage” now preserved in public Museum should be evaluated, keeping in mind that objects coming from a speciic excavation could have been bought after the “partage,” by the same Museum or foreign mission, at the Cairo Museum Sale Room. 5. T he Sal e Room , the anti q u i ty m ark e t, the the f ts After long debates on the objectives and organization of the Sale Room, one of the purposes of the law issued in 1951 for the protection of the Egyptian antiquities was to accomplish the will already expressed during the Conférence Internationale des Fouilles du Caire, in 1937, stating that:63 ain de contribuer à prévenir les fouilles clandestines, et pour permettre aux 61. In the entries of the catalogue of the m fa , under these numbers, one can read: « From Giza. Excavated by the Harvard University-Museum of Fine Arts Expedition; assigned to the m fa by the government of Egypt », or « Assigned to the m fa in the division of inds by the government of Egypt ». 62. al-achmawi, Sarikat Mashroua, pp. 34-57. 63. khater, Le régime juridique des fouilles, p. 231. t h e a n t i Q u i t i e s pat h 125 collections publiques de remplir leur mission scientiiques et éducatives, il est nécessaire que les Etats fournissent aux musées étrangers les possibilités légales d’acquisition des antiquités se trouvant en double dans leurs musées nationaux. The law encouraged the sale of antiquities to public institutions, and strict custom controls, to avoid the danger that antiquities leave the country illegally. In addition, it stated that: « Le Service des Antiquités ne garantit l’authenticité que des pièces vendues par ses musées ».64 As a matter of fact, antiquities could be bought from the many antiquities dealers, oicial or improvised (pl. xx), working mostly in Cairo, Alexandria and Luxor.65 These merchants acquired the objects through the Sale Room, as we gather from its Register, but could easily ind antiquities illegally unearthed or stolen from excavations. An interesting report on items stolen in Egypt and exported abroad, addressed to the Committee of the Antiquities Service established to stop robberies of antiquities was written probably by Alexandre Varille in autumn 1937, and is now kept in his archives in Milan. After enumerating famous stolen papyri and ostraca, as well as a stela from Amarna that ended up in the Brooklyn Museum, he concludes:66 Nous ne formulons pas le moindre soupçon à l’égard des fonctionnaires du Service des Antiquités ni à l’égard du personnel de diférents Instituts chargés des fouilles. Toutefois, des vols viennent d’être commis: sans doute l’ont-ils été par des petits ouvriers. Quoiqu’il en soit ces vols sont connus depuis plusieurs années, sans que personne ne s’inquiétât ou ne cherchât à les divulguer. Il y a là une négligence grave que le Comité doit examiner, à laquelle il doit mettre in et inliger aux coupables la peine qu’ils méritent. In 1976, at the irst International Congress of Egyptology in Cairo, Labib Habachi presented a courageous paper on the robberies of Egyptian monuments in the irst half of the 20th century, that opened the way for enforcing 64. Ibidem, p. 254. 65. On some well-known antiquities dealers, cf. A.C. gunter, A Collector’s Journey. Charles Lang Freer and Egypt, Washington DC 2002, pp. 89-119. 66. Biblioteca e Archivi di Egittologia, Unimi, fondo Varille, vecchio inv. dossier 112. 126 e da l i v · 2 0 13 / 2 0 14 the laws on the protection of cultural heritage.67 It was becoming evident that any piece of antiquity could not leave the country anymore. 6. Som e case stu di e s In some cases, nevertheless, the merchants “saved” the antiquities, before selling them. An amazing example is that of the Papyrus Liepsner. In the early 1960s, Sayed Molattam, an oicial dealer by permission from the Egyptian Museum (Licence No. 58, Luxor), rescued the roll from workers who had found a hoard of papyri and had been burning them for three days, to warm themselves and make tea. In November 1968, it was purchased by Thomas Liepsner, and soon become known to scholars as pamenemhet.68 To illustrate the rediscovery of objects that are not present in bibliography, and remained unknown until now since mentioned in unpublished archival documentation only, we can mention a relief from the tomb of Mose at Saqqara, unhearthed by Loret in 1898. A photograph of this block, decorated with an ofering scene showing a man censing and libating before the Apis-bull, was found some years ago in the archives of the Archaeologist now in Milan.69 Its left part has since been discovered, as we will see below, while the right one has not yet been found. It probably ended up in a private collection, or in a Museum that we have not able to identify, or was lost. Researches in the archives, review of auction catalogues, and oral memories of archaeologists and dealers, could integrate data on objects known, for example kept in Museums, but for which provenance, discoverer, or even exact location in a tomb, temple, or other site remained unknown. To illustrate this 67. L. habachi, Damages and Robberies of Egyptian Monuments in the Last Half Century, in W.F. reineke (ed.), First i c e , Acts, Cairo 1976, « Schriften zür Geschichte und Kultur des Alten Orients » 14, Berlin 1979, pp. 271-275; J. kamil, Labib Habachi. The Life and Legacy of an Egyptologist, Cairo - New York 2007, pp. 250254. Cf. also waxman, Loot, pp. 23-24, 373-375. 68. T. liepsner, The Papyrus Liepsner (pamenemhet). A Truly Extraordinary 3,500-year-old Book of the Dead, in « k m t » 25 / 4 (2014-15), pp. 27-37. 69. p. piacentini - c. orsenigo, The discovery of the tomb of Mose and its “juridical inscription”, in iid. (eds), Egyptian Archives. Proceedings of the First Session of the International Congress Egyptian Archives / Egyptological Archives, Milano 2009, pp. 83-102. t h e a n t i Q u i t i e s pat h 127 point, we can use the just mentioned relief from the tomb of Mose at Saqqara. In-depth research has made it possible to retrace the passage of the left hand portion of the object from diferent dealers — Maurice Nahman in Cairo irst,70 Lucien Viola in New York then 71 — to the sale at Sotheby’s in 1980, until its inal location at the Rosicrucian Museum in San José.72 The last case that we would like to mention is the easiest one: when the information present in the Register of the Sale Room is already known to the Museum that purchased the object. An example is the well-known statue of an oicial with pleated costume dating back to the Roman Period, currently on display in Gallery 131 of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (65.119). On the database of the Museum,73 one can read that the statue was Sold from the Salle de Vente, Egyptian Museum, Cairo; noted in the register for 1962, page 6, entry 52. Purchased by Heinz Herzer, Munich. Acquired by Spink and Sons, London. Purchased by the museum from Spink and Sons, 1965. We cannot exclude the possibility that Bernard Bothmer himself, who annotated in his copy of the page of the Sale Register the inal location of the statue, had informed the m m a of the original provenance of the object. Slowly, information on antiquities bought by Collectors or Museums at the Sale Room, directly or through dealers, are published. It is the case, for example, of some objects of the collection of Friedrich Wilhelm von Bissing, partly purchased by the City of Hannover in the irst half of the Nineteenth century and housed in the Museum August Kestner,74 or of some objects transferred to the collection of the Hermitage in 1931 from the regional museum of 70. bierbrier, Who Was Who, p. 397. Nahman started his activity in 1890, in the same years of the opening of the Sale Room, where he surely bought objects for the Museums and collectors that were his clients. For additional information and some amazing photographs of Nahman’s antiquities shop in Cairo see R. pintaudi, Documenti per una storia della papirologia in Italia, in « an pap » 5 (1993), 156-170. 71. Lucien Viola, grandson of Maurice Nahman, owned and directed L’Ibis Gallery Ltd. in New York until 1991. He worked closely with Ernst Koler of Luzern, who was a major collector of Egyptian antiquities, and is often mentioned in the Register of the Cairo Museum Sale Room. 72. c. orsenigo, A newly identiied relief from the tomb-chapel of Mose at Saqqara, in « z ä s » 140 (2013), pp. 167-171, pls 25-26. 73. < http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/100002406?rpp=20&pg=1&ft=65.119 &pos=1 >. 74. C.E. loeben, Friedrich Wilhelm von Bissing, in W. schepers, Bürgerschätze: Sammeln für Hannover: 125 Jahre Museum August Kestner, « Museum Kestnerianum » 19, Hannover 2013, pp. 88- 92. 128 e da l i v · 2 0 13 / 2 0 14 Samara, that were bought at the Sale Room in July 1911 and in May 1913.75 A group of stone vessels, excavated by Quibell at Saqqara in 1910-11, was purchased at the Sale Room by A.M. Lythgoe and H.W. Kent for the Cleveland Museum of Art in 1916, on advice of Quibell himself.76 In a letter to Lythgoe, Quibell writes that the vessels will be sold at the Sale Room separately, but he would prefer to sell them as a group to a museum.77 Information on the exact provenance of most of them, in some cases already ascertained through letters and documents kept in the archives of the Cleveland Museum, can now be precised and increased thanks to the Quibell’s notebooks kept in the Egyptological Archives of the Milan University (pl. xxi). 7. G i f ts of State Another aspect that deserves to be studied is related to the oicial gifts of antiquities made by the Egyptian governors during a span of more that one and a half centuries, starting from Muhammad ‘Ali and continuing at least to Anwar Al-Sadat.78 It is well known that many monuments left Egypt at the end of the 1960s as a gift of President Nasser to the nations that contributed to the salvage operation of the Nubian temples.79 A new path of research is the identiication of the objects ofered during oicial visits of the Egyptian governors to foreign countries, or donated to visiting chiefs of state. This practice of ofering native arts or antiques-prized pieces of a country’s culture and heritage is well attested all over the world. The Italian President Giovanni Leone, for example, ofered an Etruscan “Bucchero” vase to the President of the United States Gerald R. Ford in September 1974;80 in December 1975, the Israeli Defense Minister Shimon 75. A. kakovkin, Eine Tonlampe des 4.-5. Jh. aus Ägypten in der Sammlung der Ermitage, in « gm » 143 (1994), p. 85 and note 1. 76. L.M. berman et al., Catalogue of Egyptian Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland 1999, pp. 7, 81-102. 77. Ibidem, p. 82 note 9 (Quibell to Lythgoe, 4 January 1915, c m a Archives). 78. Cf. e.g. L.B. auel, Tokens and Treasures: Gifts to Twelve Presidents (Cat. of the exhib.), Washington dc, 1996. 79. Cf. e.g. S. okasha, Ramses Recrowned: The International Campaign to preserve the Monuments of Nubia, in S. d’auria, Oferings to the Discerning Eye: An Egyptological Medley in Honor of Jack A. Josephson, « c h a n e » 38, Leiden 2010, pp. 223-243, in particular p. 241. 80. < http://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/museum/ArtifactCollectionSamples/Catagories/StateGifts/ t h e a n t i Q u i t i e s pat h 129 Peres donated to the same American President a Roman glass vessel dating back to the 1st–2nd centuries a.d.;81 and the cases could be multiplied. Concerning the Egyptian antiquities, an interesting research has started, and the irst results were presented by Al-Achmawi in 2012.82 The objects chosen as gifts of state were generally statuettes of divinities, alabaster vessels, amulets, or small items of this kind. There are no proofs that antiquities have been given away as state gifts after the presidency of Al-Sadat (1970-1981). By the way, it seems that around the beginnings of the 1980s the practice of ofering antiquities as state gifts almost ceased all over the world. 8. Conc l u si ons As we have seen, by combining information from archives and museums or private collections we can follow the path of numerous ancient objects. Of some of them, it is possible to know the previous owner(s), and eventually ind out where they are kept at present. Of others, sold to public museums, we can establish the original provenance and trace their way from the ancient sites to the Cairo Museum Sale Room, and then to antiquities dealers, auctions, diferent owners, up to their inal location. We are interested in understanding what kind of objects were sold and dispersed, from what sites, through what dealers, etc., and we plan to insert all the collected information and in a database that could be open to scholars and Museums in the future. Too many ancient objects have left Egypt over the centuries. If a great number of them have been really stolen, other, that some perceive nowadays as stolen, were in fact legally exported or donated, even if that can ethically disturb us. ClayPot.html >. This vase, found in Vulci (Italy) on February 19, 1962, is now kept at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum at Ann Arbor, m i. 81. < http://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/staf_favorites/romanVessel%20.asp >. This vase is one of many state gifts exchanged during the time of peace negotiations between the United States, Israel and Egypt. It is now kept at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum at Ann Arbor, m i. 82. al-achmawi, Sarikat Mashroua, pp. 122-130. 130 e da l i v · 2 0 13 / 2 0 14 Ac k now l e dg m e nts I am deeply grateful to Judge Dr Achraf Al-Achmawi, Dr Wendy Doyon, Dr Christian Orsenigo, and Professor Stephen Quirke for their friendly help and invaluable suggestions. patrizia.piacentini@unimi.it PLATES PLATE XII P. PIACENTINI EDAL IV . 2013 / 2014 1. Photograph of two pages from the Register of the Sale Room of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Università degli Studi di Milano, Eg. Arch. & Lib., Bothmer Collection. 2. J.E. Quibell’s notebook on his excavations at Saqqara in 1907-1910, with mention of the Sale Room of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Università degli Studi di Milano, Eg. Arch. & Lib., Quibell Collection. EDAL IV . 2013 / 2014 P. PIACENTINI 1. Plan of the Bulaq Museum, in G. MASPERO, Guide du visiteur au Musée de Bulaq, [Le Caire] 1883. Università degli Studi di Milano, Eg. Arch. & Lib., Edel Collection. 2. The garden in front of the Bulaq Museum, in A. MARIETTE, Album du Musée de Boulaq, Le Caire 1872, pl. 1. Università degli Studi di Milano, Eg. Arch. & Lib., Varille Collection. PLATE XIII PLATE XIV P. PIACENTINI EDAL IV . 2013 / 2014 Antiquities in the garden of the Bulaq Museum. Albumen print by Alexandre Brignoli. Università degli Studi di Milano, Eg. Arch. & Lib. EDAL IV . 2013 / 2014 P. PIACENTINI Court of the Giza Museum. Università degli Studi di Milano, Eg. Arch. & Lib., Lacau Collection. PLATE XV PLATE XVI P. PIACENTINI EDAL IV . 2013 / 2014 1. Plan of the ground floor of the Giza Museum, in J. DE MORGAN, Notice des principaux monuments exposés au Musée de Gizeh, Le Caire 1892. Università degli Studi di Milano, Eg. Arch. & Lib., Varille Collection. 2. (Left to right) U. Bouriant, G. Barsanti, G. Jéquier, J. de Morgan and G. Legrain at Kom Ombo. The seated woman is probably Mrs. Daressy. Photograph, 1894 (?). Università degli Studi di Milano, Eg. Arch. & Lib., Lacau Collection. EDAL IV . 2013 / 2014 P. PIACENTINI 1. Plan of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, in K. BAEDEKER, Égypte et Soudan: Manuel du Voyageur, Leipzig - Paris 19083. Università degli Studi di Milano, Eg. Arch. & Lib., Varille Collection. 2. The exterior court in front of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. On the right, the entrance of the Sale Room. Università degli Studi di Milano, Eg. Arch. & Lib., Varille Collection. PLATE XVII PLATE XVIII P. PIACENTINI EDAL IV . 2013 / 2014 Showcase on the first floor of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, probably 1913. Università degli Studi di Milano, Eg. Arch. & Lib., Varille Collection. EDAL IV . 2013 / 2014 P. PIACENTINI PLATE XIX Full size dioramas of daily life in ancient Egypt at the Universal Exposition of Saint Louis, Missouri 1904. Università degli Studi di Milano, Eg. Arch. & Lib., Quibell Collection. PLATE XX P. PIACENTINI EDAL IV . 2013 / 2014 1. Improvised antiquities dealer in a photograph taken by Charles Kuentz in the ’30s. Università degli Studi di Milano, Eg. Arch. & Lib., Varille Collection. 2. a) Sign of the famous “Khawam Brothers” house of antiquities in Cairo; b) Obituary of the renowned antiquities dealer Maurice Nahman, in «Le Progrès égyptien» 22 Mars (1948), p. 2. Università degli Studi di Milano, Eg. Arch. & Lib., Varille Collection. EDAL IV . 2013 / 2014 P. PIACENTINI PLATE XXI 1. Stone vessels in one of the underground chambers of early dynastic tomb 2498 excavated at Saqqara by J.E. Quibell in 1910-11. Università degli Studi di Milano, Eg. Arch. & Lib., Quibell Collection. 2. Early dynastic Tomb 2498 excavated by J.E. Quibell at Saqqara in 1910-11. Università degli Studi di Milano, Eg. Arch. & Lib., Quibell Collection.