tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3279887958085077691.post4105767799575132635..comments2024-02-22T10:35:12.485-08:00Comments on Cultural Property Observer: Differing Perceptions of Italy's Premier Coin DisplayCultural Property Observerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05924359202414555962noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3279887958085077691.post-36129147702242852632009-12-11T18:44:56.399-08:002009-12-11T18:44:56.399-08:00Thank you Wayne. It would be interesting to hear ...Thank you Wayne. It would be interesting to hear about other displays and the conditions behind the scenes at other museums and/or archaeological sites. <br /><br />Nathan Elkins links us to his blog about the Palazzo Massimo in "Looting Matters." See http://coinarchaeology.blogspot.com/2008/09/coin-collection-at-museo-nazionale.html<br /><br />That blog reminds us:<br /><br />"Most of the coins in the cases at the Palazzo Massimo come from the private collection of Francesco Gnecchi, a numismatic scholar from the late 19th and early 20th century, but other displays include excavated hoards and finds as does its larger inventory which cannot be displayed at once. Some 60,000 - 70,000 ancient coins from the Rome, which were recovered during the risorgimento, await publication by the numismatists at Frankfurt. Some finds from the Tiber River have already been published."<br /><br />So, the Museum has benefited from the generosity of a collector to make its display possible, but 19th c. ancient coin site finds from Rome still have not been published?<br /><br />Imagine that.....Cultural Property Observerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05924359202414555962noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3279887958085077691.post-49193262964158028142009-12-11T15:54:52.706-08:002009-12-11T15:54:52.706-08:00Peter;
Since anecdotal accounts seem to be accept...Peter;<br /><br />Since anecdotal accounts seem to be acceptable in the realm of forming opinions, if not in scholarly debate, I'll relate one of my own that is absolutely true. In the 1980s, I visited the Archaeological Museum in Naples and was kindly received by one of the staff. After marveling at the mosaics and the statuary in the main salon, I explained my interest in ancient coins and was taken to a basement store room where the products of local excavations were stored. Literally thousands of pounds of coins were stored in buckets on the floor of this very damp room with no organization of any sort. Just bucket after bucket of coins. Most of the bronze coins were badly infested with bronze disease. It was a sad and shocking experience. About ten years later, I ran into a coin dealer from California who had just returned from Naples and had visited the same museum. Remarkably, he too found a staff member willing (if not proud) to show the coins - the same coins it appears - except that by then most of the bronze coins were merely green dust. The museum could probably not be faulted, since they work on a limited budget and the coins just kept accumulating until they had nowhere to go with them. This was, after all, the repository for most of the artifacts from Pompeii and Herculaneum. Can you imagine trying to store all of the portable remains from two ancient cities, and a huge surrounding area, in one building? The archaeologists could not be faulted, because they were merely doing their job and retrieving what nature and history had left in their path. The loss of this resource and all the good that it could have done lies squarely on the shoulders of the nationalist ideology that locked it forever in that basement. But, in fairness, I shouldn't pick on Naples. Some other time, I'll tell you about the coins in the archaeological museum in Istanbul or the Tardani dies at the Museo del Terme, or the rape of Side by the Turkish Ministry of Tourism, or ....<br /><br />Regards,<br /><br />WayneWayne G. Sayleshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02443529723963083983noreply@blogger.com