How Did These Ancient Syrian Artifacts End Up at the Met?” Asked the OBSERVER.
“How art travels around the world, away from its place of origin, is a process that’s received much attention recently as governmental investigative bodies work to return looted artifacts to their rightful owners. Tomorrow(31 October 2019), the Metropolitan Museum of Art will launch an exhibition called “Rayyane Tabet / Alien Property” that will examine the specific process of transference underwent by ninth-century B.C.E. stone reliefs that were excavated from Tell Halaf, Syria at the beginning of the 20th century by German archaeologist named Baron Max von Oppenheim” wrote Helen Holmes for the Observer.
However, the Metropolitan Museum websites wrote:
“In 1911, German archaeologist Baron Max von Oppenheim oversaw excavations at Tell Halaf. Among the finds was a palace frieze composed of nearly 200 stone reliefs depicting a variety of mythological scenes. In the early 1930s, von Oppenheim brought eight of these reliefs to the United States. In 1943, American authorities confiscated them under the authority of the Alien Property Custodian, a wartime agency responsible for the seizure, administration, and sometimes sale of enemy property in the United States. Soon after their confiscation, The Met purchased them from the Office of the Alien Property Custodian. Four of the reliefs were subsequently put on display in the Museum galleries, where they have remained ever since”.
REALLY!!
” that will examine the specific process of transference underwent by ninth-century B.C.E. stone reliefs that were excavated from Tell Halaf, Syria”
What does that mean? and more importantly, does the metropolitan museum consider those artifacts as a looted items from Syria in the first place?
I will be interested to visit the Met museum and see the exhibition for myself next time I visit New York, meanwhile if any of you my friends get the chance to see the exhibition please let me know what you think, what exactly this exhibition is all about!!
Thank you in advance (Admin Helen).
P.S Photo, I took for those Artifacts on my last visit to the Met early this year.
Haifaa Mafalani