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Collaboration, Lost Paintings and A Long Divided Mummy

© Roxanne Nelson

Since a lot of art related events appeared to be happening in Germany right around now, I'd thought I'd take the opportunity to write about it for this month's article. First, an historic collaboration between Germany and Russia. No, nothing to get worried about! Instead, they collaborating to temporarily reunite a renowned collection of early European art that was divided, stolen and scattered during World War II.

Known as the Merovingian Treasure, this is a collection of 5th to 8th century objects that were once kept in the Museum for Pre and Early History in Berlin. Quite a number of these articles were stolen at the end of the war by Russian soldiers as "souvenirs" and are now exhibited in both the Hermitage and Puskin Museums in Russia. The planned exhibition is to be a major even in St. Petersburg, where the objects from both countries will be brought together will the first time since 1945. The exhibit is scheduled to open in late 2003 or early 2004.

Next, three lost drawings by the Flemish Old Master Peter Paul Rubens were discovered in Cologne. Art historians from the Wallraf-Richartz Museum announced that the pictures were actually discovered two years ago, while the museum was in the process of moving its graphic collection to a new building. During the move, which involved roughly 75,000 works, a large number of folios were discovered that were not registered in the museum's catalogue. Intensive in-house research has now concluded that these three pictures in particular are, indeed, the work of Rubens. The watermark, which is a man carrying a walking staff, is believed to be the most compelling evidence that these pictures were drawn by Rubens. The paper they are drawn on has been traced to Italy, manufactured in 1598, which also coincides with an eight year residence that the artist had in Italy, during which he sketched prolifically. The museum is preparing to convene a symposium of international art experts in Cologne to confirm the attribution, and assignment of a monetary value to the drawings will not be made until then.

Finally, half of a mummy that has been mising from Egypt since 1931 is finally being returned to Cairo. The base of the casket of Akhenaton was shipped two weeks ago, from Munich back to it's "lid" in Cairo. The two halves of the coffin were reunited for the first time in 70 years, when they became the centerpiece of a three month exhibit at the State Museum for Egyptian Art in Munich.

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