Lost Etruscan warrior statuette returned to the Collection of Classical Antiquities
Press release from 02/28/2017
The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation has recovered a valuable Etruscan bronze statuette that was thought to have been lost since the Second World War. The depiction of a spear-throwing man with a helmet, which had been part of the antiquities collection since 1869, was recently identified in the art trade.
- English version: please find PDF below German text -
The warrior statuette had been in an English private collection for over thirty years; it had presumably been acquired for this purpose before 1979 and was only auctioned in 2015. It was to be sold again via the art dealers Oliver Forge and Brendan Lynch Ltd. Forge contacted Dr Judith Swaddling (British Museum), who identified the object as belonging to the pre-war holdings of the Antikensammlung der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin. After the seller learnt of the object's history through Oliver Forge, he agreed to return it to the Antikensammlung der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin.
Hermann Parzinger, President of the SPK, said: "I would like to thank the consignor for his generosity, Oliver Forge for his support in returning this object, the British Museum for its identification, and former British Museum employee Dr Dyfri Williams for his help in returning it. This restitution is an excellent example of how owners, art dealers and museums can work together to return artworks to the collections from which they were lost due to historical circumstances."
The 17 cm high bronze statuette can be dated to the Late Archaic period (late 6th - early 5th century BC). It belongs to a group of highly abstract, small-format warrior depictions from central Italy (Etruria and neighbouring regions), which were donated as votive offerings to certain deities. The warrior depicted is wearing a so-called Attic helmet with upturned cheek guards, an undergarment and a breastplate with stylised decoration on top. He once carried weapons (spear and shield) in his hands, but these were already missing in the 19th century when the statuette - from the estate of the first "archaeologist at the museum" Eduard Gerhard - came into the Collection of Classical Antiquities.
The statuette with the inv. no. Fr. 2202a could be identified on the basis of its entry in the online image database "Antike Bronzen in Berlin" and older publications. The majority of the Greek, Etruscan and Roman bronzes in the Collection of Classical Antiquities are recorded in the electronic catalogue. The old collection catalogues and inventories, new photographs and - in the case of war losses - historical photographs from the museum's photo archive served as the basis. There is a comprehensive bibliography for each item. The database also serves as a catalogue of losses, supplementing the printed volume of the Collection of Classical Antiquities published in 2005, which lists the losses of sculptures, vases, ivory and bone, gold jewellery, gems and cameos.