2016 - News - Detail Page - Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz

Hermann Parzinger, President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, emphasised: "It shows how profitable research into the history of the collection and provenance research can be. The return of the objects is a great stroke of luck for the museum, especially as it can hardly acquire new archaeological finds today given the frequent illegality of such goods on the market."

Around half of the holdings of today's Museum of Byzantine Art, approximately 3,000 artefacts, were transported to the Soviet Union after the end of the war. The parts of the collection stored in the Friedrichshain anti-aircraft bunker during the war, including most of the late antique-early Byzantine artefacts from Egypt, were considered destroyed after the fire in the bunker's control tower in May 1945. In recent years, several late antique Egyptian everyday objects from the Berlin collection have been discovered in Russian exhibitions. It cannot be said with certainty that they were in the Friedrichshain anti-aircraft bunker at the end of the war. Nevertheless, such discoveries, as well as the discovery of the two crates, fuel the hope that other objects previously thought to have been destroyed will turn up.

During the return transport from the Soviet Union in 1958, the objects that have now returned to Berlin were stored scattered in several boxes, most of which contained objects from Leipzig. The Berlin items were not included in the accompanying lists and could therefore not be identified. After initially unsuccessful enquiries to various museums in Dresden and Berlin, further research led to the Museum of Byzantine Art at the National Museums in Berlin. There, a comparison with the inventory lists, the catalogue of losses and an inventory catalogue from 1909 as well as the acquisition numbers led to clarification of the provenance of 44 of the 47 objects in the two Leipzig crates. The provenance of three items remains unclear for the time being.

The original Russian transport crates have not been preserved. The objects were packed into two sturdy crates in Leipzig - apparently after 1990 - in which they were stored until their return to Berlin.

The Byzantine Museum is currently contacting all archaeological collections in the eastern German states to see if any other "stray objects" can be found. At the same time, a catalogue is being prepared which will list the missing objects, currently around 1,600 items. It is due to be published next year and will help to clarify provenance issues. It will then make it easier to identify any "stray items" in museum depots.

FURTHER PRESS INFORMATION

War losses of the Museum of Byzantine Art

In 1945, the collection of today's Museum of Byzantine Art comprised around 5,500 inventoried and 500 to 1,000 non-inventoried objects. Some of them had remained in the museum rooms during the war, while others had been stored in the basement of the Pergamon Museum, in the Merkers salt mine in Thuringia and in the Berlin-Friedrichshain anti-aircraft bunker.

Four hundred objects stored in Merkers were recovered by the Western Allies and later formed the basis of the Early Christian Byzantine Collection in Berlin-Dahlem. Part of the collection remained on the Museum Island after 1945. Almost half of the pre-war collection was transported to the Soviet Union in 1945/46, of which around half was returned to the Museum Island in the 1950s. A fire in the Friedrichshain anti-aircraft bunker in May 1945 is said to have destroyed the artefacts that had been taken there, including most of the late antique, early Byzantine everyday objects from Egypt. However, in an exhibition in Moscow in 2005, several bone carvings from Egypt, which were part of the Berlin museum's old collection and were previously thought to have been burnt in the Friedrichshain anti-aircraft bunker, surprisingly turned up. Late antique-early Byzantine textiles from the Berlin collection were also on display at an exhibition in Moscow in 2010/11. During research by the Collection of Classical Antiquities of the National Museums in Berlin in Russian depots, some metal objects from the Museum of Byzantine Art were discovered. It is quite possible that further objects from the Berlin museum's holdings have been preserved in Moscow. However, it must also be assumed that some of the objects returned from the Soviet Union in the 1950s ended up in the 'wrong' collection and are therefore still missing from the museum that originally owned them.

Characterisation and significance of some objects

The 44 objects in the collection of the Museum of Byzantine Art are decorated artefacts of everyday culture, some of high craftsmanship quality, mainly made of clay, supplemented by four stone objects and a metal oil lamp. Five of the objects come from the Western Roman Empire, 39 pieces from late antique to early Islamic Egypt. They are of both historical and scientific value and fill several gaps in the museum that have arisen as a result of war losses and relocation. Their arrival also marks the return of part of the history of the Museum of Byzantine Art.

Of particular value are four late antique clay oil lamps from North Africa. They were made in workshops that produced for the entire Mediterranean region and provide information about trade at the time. They bear reliefs with various Christian depictions.

A metal lamp decorated with Christian motifs comes from Trier and thus from the Gallic provinces of the Western Roman Empire. As all the late antique metal lamps with Christian symbolism have been missing from the Museum of Byzantine Art since the end of the war, the return of this object is highly significant.

Several objects, vessels and statuettes, come from an excavation in Abu Mina near Alexandria, a pilgrimage shrine dedicated to St Menas. This sanctuary is already represented in the museum by the well-known Menas amulets and several female figurines; with the returned objects, further aspects of the pilgrimage can now be presented.

Another object of Egyptian origin, a so-called head vessel, dates from Roman times and depicts the god Bes, the patron saint of pregnant women, women who have recently given birth and newborn babies. The return of this finely crafted, embossed cup and other Roman artefacts is a particular stroke of luck. They form the bridge between the archaeological collections on the Museum Island from the Altes Museum (Collection of Classical Antiquities) to the Neues Museum (Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection) and the Bode Museum (Museum of Byzantine Art).

The Egyptian Collection in the Museum of Byzantine Art

Egypt was a province of the Byzantine Empire from the 4th to the early 7th century, which is why the Museum of Byzantine Art has a collection of Egyptian artefacts from this period. It is one of the most important outside the north-east African country.

The origins of this part of the Berlin collection can be traced back to the collaboration between the Graz art historian Josef Strzygowski and the then Berlin director of the department of sculptures from the Christian era and the picture gallery, Wilhelm von Bode. In the winter of 1900/01, Strzygowski was commissioned by Bode to purchase a large number of late antique Byzantine artefacts, primarily from Egypt. The aim of this acquisition policy was to research the Christian art and culture of the Orient in its autonomy and independence from Rome and to systematically build up a collection of late antique Byzantine art. Strzygowski acquired around 1,500 objects of various material genres. Eighteen of the pieces now returned are from this collection.