Berlin Neuesmuseum (re-)opens after 70 years.

[Monarchist]

Museum Island, my favorite place in all of Berlin, has had a great celebration the past week. Musämsinsel is famous for its gigantic park/courtyard, fountains, and museums. Located just southeast of the Chancellery and Reichstag, it houses thousands of Greek, Egyptian, and German works of art and history. What more could any history lover ask for than the infamous bust of Nefertiti?

It closed in 1939 because Hitler wanted to ... keep the people demoralized, I guess? Whatever the reason was, the N.S.D.A.P. certainly didn't try very hard to hide the historical works during the bombings of Berlin. In 1943, a gigantic fire-bombing raid was initiated by the British, and thousands of unique historical artifacts were destroyed forever on Museum Island. Thankfully, after 70 years of hemming and hawing, the Germans have re-opened the New Museum!

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...655577,00.html

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Nefertiti Gets a New Palace

Revamped Neues Museum Finally Opens in Berlin


For seven decades Berlin's Neues Museum was a derelict, bomb-scarred shell -- but finally it is back, boasting a star-studded cast including the 3,400-year-old bust of the Egyptian queen Nefertiti. German Chancellor Angela Merkel officially opens the restored museum on Friday.
It's a day that took decades to arrive. One of the jewels of Berlin's Museum Island complex will reopen its doors. The Neues Museum reopens on Friday, meaning that the entire ensemble of Berlin's neoclassical galleries will be open for the first time since World War II.


"It is a special day ... 70 years after it was closed, this building can be handed over to the public again," Hermann Parzinger, the head of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, which oversees Berlin's museums, told journalists ahead of the opening of the galleries, which will hold the city's Egyptian Museum and the Museum of Pre- and Early History. "It is, in a way, the end of the postwar era for the Museum Island."

[...]

Have a moment of remembrance for all the works of art and history, and for all the lives lost in that bombing raid.

[yxc qwert!]

Cool, I always liked that island, too.

[Hookah Smoking Caterpiller]

Groovy, now I can look at more artefacts stolen by Europeans from the M-E

[Dr. Oza]

Groovy, now I can look at more artefacts stolen by Europeans from the M-E

so true

[Fridericus Rex]

Not stolen, preserved. Otherwise they would be still in the ground, or sold on the black market by one of your cheap "carpet beggars".

They are restored and well-kept and free for the hole world to see.

[dogukan]

Not stolen, preserved. Otherwise they would be still in the ground, or sold on the black market by one of your cheap "carpet beggars".

They are restored and well-kept and free for the hole world to see.

this has truth in it...but not totally. It's sad to see how many of these historical sites are blown into pieces and broken down just to get the valuable stuff back to their museum.

Besides, I believe the artifacts should remain in the area they were taken from.
During the last 2 centuries Europeans have stolen a lot from Greece-Turkey and Middle East.

[Sirota]

this has truth in it...but not totally. It's sad to see how many of these historical sites are blown into pieces and broken down just to get the valuable stuff back to their museum.

Besides, I believe the artifacts should remain in the area they were taken from.
During the last 2 centuries Europeans have stolen a lot from Greece-Turkey and Middle East.

I agree. If the paintings are properly labelled and display the country of origin, I find no problem.

[FliegerAD]

When Humann found the Great Altar of Pergamon - Berlin's most prominent exhibition - it was used as a stone-pit by the locals, often burning the marbles to lime. And this "barbarian" Humann, together with Conze and Curtius now seriously made a treaty with the Turkish government, bought every piece of the ancient altar, and reconstructed it... of course it would have been much better if they had just been standing by and watching the continued destruction by it's "rightful" heirs.
Most pieces in the Berlin exhibitions have a similar story, and when the local government prohibited the export of ancient artefacts, German archaeologists obeyed such as happened in Mycenae, excavated with German money and German expertise - the artefacts are still in Greece though. Later, the BSA made a similar deal, btw.

[Hookah Smoking Caterpiller]

When Humann found the Great Altar of Pergamon - Berlin's most prominent exhibition - it was used as a stone-pit by the locals, often burning the marbles to lime. And this "barbarian" Humann, together with Conze and Curtius now seriously made a treaty with the Turkish government, bought every piece of the ancient altar, and reconstructed it... of course it would have been much better if they had just been standing by and watching the continued destruction by it's "rightful" heirs.
Most pieces in the Berlin exhibitions have a similar story, and when the local government prohibited the export of ancient artefacts, German archaeologists obeyed such as happened in Mycenae, excavated with German money and German expertise - the artefacts are still in Greece though. Later, the BSA made a similar deal, btw.

Oh come on, early archaeologists were nothing more than tresure hunters. Schieman changed the dates of artefacts, destroyed what he didn't deem to be correctly 'trojan'. He was not interested in preservation or the persuit of knowledge, but cold hard cash.

[FliegerAD]

How exactly does that change the simple fact that the Pergamon Altar, along with many others, would have been lost forever? It's hypocrisy to condemn German archaeologists and elevate the stone-pit-and-burning-marbles-locals to "rightful" heirs.

It's not true anyway. The Mycenae-excavation I was talking about was led by Schliemann and Dörpfeld! Yes, Schliemann did misdate artefacts, this can happen to anyone, and happens everyday. The destruction of non-ancient artefacts was common procedure in classicists' excavations, unfortunatly long after Schliemann's death still. Meanwhile people forget the great Mycenae excavation, which became role model...

[Hookah Smoking Caterpiller]

How exactly does that change the simple fact that the Pergamon Altar, along with many others, would have been lost forever? It's hypocrisy to condemn German archaeologists and elevate the stone-pit-and-burning-marbles-locals to "rightful" heirs.

I never said they should belong to the current locals, much of these artefacts (Greek & Egyptian especially) are vastly culturally removed from the modern states that currently hold the ancient territories of nations. However, I disagree with this very colonial attitude of 'barbaric brown people unable to look after their own past, so the mighty white man must save it'

It's not true anyway. The Mycenae-excavation I was talking about was led by Schliemann and Dörpfeld! Yes, Schliemann did misdate artefacts, this can happen to anyone, and happens everyday. The destruction of non-ancient artefacts was common procedure in classicists' excavations, unfortunatly long after Schliemann's death still. Meanwhile people forget the great Mycenae excavation, which became role model...

, Schliemann diliberately changed the stratigraphy of certain artefacts, purely to prove his point about Troy and Mycenae. Misdating artefacts can happen, but misslabling their stratigraphy? Thats gross incompotence, try that on a modern dig and you'll be out of a job. Destroy findings because they don't agree with your theory? You'll be thrown out of any archaeological possition you could hold, and in some countries where you require a licence to excavate, you'd be barred from ever setting foot on a site again. At the very least you'd be blacklisted in the archaeological community.

Mycenae's excavation is not a role model for Archaeology today, the methodology of modern digs is far removed from what was basicly scrabbling around in the dirt for shiny objects and then asinging them arbitrary dates and usese to correlate with you pre-determined theory. In modern Archaeology, you excavate and make a theory of what has gone on based on all avalible evidence, both in the trench, and other, related sites. You do not ever, go out with a pre-concived theory and match your findings to them. That isn't Archaeology, its moronic.

[DAVIDE]

I never said they should belong to the current locals, much of these artefacts (Greek & Egyptian especially) are vastly culturally removed from the modern states that currently hold the ancient territories of nations. However, I disagree with this very colonial attitude of 'barbaric brown people unable to look after their own past, so the mighty white man must save it'



, Schliemann diliberately changed the stratigraphy of certain artefacts, purely to prove his point about Troy and Mycenae. Misdating artefacts can happen, but misslabling their stratigraphy? Thats gross incompotence, try that on a modern dig and you'll be out of a job. Destroy findings because they don't agree with your theory? You'll be thrown out of any archaeological possition you could hold, and in some countries where you require a licence to excavate, you'd be barred from ever setting foot on a site again. At the very least you'd be blacklisted in the archaeological community.

Mycenae's excavation is not a role model for Archaeology today, the methodology of modern digs is far removed from what was basicly scrabbling around in the dirt for shiny objects and then asinging them arbitrary dates and usese to correlate with you pre-determined theory. In modern Archaeology, you excavate and make a theory of what has gone on based on all avalible evidence, both in the trench, and other, related sites. You do not ever, go out with a pre-concived theory and match your findings to them. That isn't Archaeology, its moronic.

i agree with you Sir. Schliemann in Archaeology doenst have a good reputation at all

[Marie Louise von Preussen]

Heh, you speak the truth. Notwithstanding the fact that early digging was often done without proper attention to care, you also had a time bomb; I wonder how many artifacts were lost forever because they were used as limestone, or sold to some guy who broke it. Fact is that only a select few truly understood the meaning of these things, so that a century later people could brag about "stolen artifacts" instead of ignoring them because none was left.

[DAVIDE]

Nefertiti bust should be returned to Egypt

[jankren]

Return all artifacts to their original countries. Unless its a place like the Congo or Afghanistan. But once the countries have stabilized they should be given back their items.

[FliegerAD]

I never said they should belong to the current locals, much of these artefacts (Greek & Egyptian especially) are vastly culturally removed from the modern states that currently hold the ancient territories of nations. However, I disagree with this very colonial attitude of 'barbaric brown people unable to look after their own past, so the mighty white man must save it'

I ask, what exactly is colonial about two allied governments, Imperial Germany and the Ottoman Empire, mutually agreeing on a treaty to sell artifacts? Moreover if the only worth they had for the locals was their price? Answer please on that very question. Again they were about to be burned. So we agree it all does not change the simple fact that these artifacts were saved from destruction, had it not been for the Germans…

, Schliemann diliberately changed the stratigraphy of certain artefacts, purely to prove his point about Troy and Mycenae. Misdating artefacts can happen, but misslabling their stratigraphy? Thats gross incompotence, try that on a modern dig and you'll be out of a job. Destroy findings because they don't agree with your theory? You'll be thrown out of any archaeological possition you could hold, and in some countries where you require a licence to excavate, you'd be barred from ever setting foot on a site again. At the very least you'd be blacklisted in the archaeological community.

Mycenae's excavation is not a role model for Archaeology today, the methodology of modern digs is far removed from what was basicly scrabbling around in the dirt for shiny objects and then asinging them arbitrary dates and usese to correlate with you pre-determined theory. In modern Archaeology, you excavate and make a theory of what has gone on based on all avalible evidence, both in the trench, and other, related sites. You do not ever, go out with a pre-concived theory and match your findings to them. That isn't Archaeology, its moronic.

Or Mycenae, what was colonial about that? Germany was to pay and excavate, Greece was to keep the artifacts. What exactly is colonial about that? Answer please.
It was a role model for all future excavations following that legal model exactly! The BSA later campaigns were noted already.

Sure methodically today’s campaigns are better – oh wonder, who would have thought? Science further developing their means and methods… what a surprise. You can dance around the fact all excavations in the past destroyed non-ancient strata, it won't vilify Schliemann anymore or less. As for the rest of your dirt on Schliemann, such as deliberate falsifications, I am sure you can prove it all… right.

But once the countries have stabilized they should be given back their items.

They were destroying “their” artifacts, and Turkey is sure as hell not the legal successor of Pergamon, neither is Egypt legal successor of Kemet, the Ptolemies or the Roman Empire. Giving anything to anyone because he lives by chance on the spot the Romans, Greeks, Persians etc. had lived before is ridiculous.
On the contrary, the Federal Republic of Germany is the legal successor of Imperial Germany, and Republic of Turkey is the legal successor of the Ottoman Empire.

[Dr. Oza]

Not stolen, preserved. Otherwise they would be still in the ground, or sold on the black market by one of your cheap "carpet beggars".

They are restored and well-kept and free for the hole world to see.

then return them to the museums in their respective countries... just because some crazy sultan that later got overthrown wanted to gift a national treasure like the pergamum altar to some germans doesnt mean they get to keep it... its not the sultans to give first of all and it belongs in turkey... and i assure we have more than adequate museums and preservation techniques...

They were destroying “their” artifacts, and Turkey is sure as hell not the legal successor of Pergamon, neither is Egypt legal successor of Kemet, the Ptolemies or the Roman Empire. Giving anything to anyone because he lives by chance on the spot the Romans, Greeks, Persians etc. had lived before is ridiculous.
On the contrary, the Federal Republic of Germany is the legal successor of Imperial Germany, and Republic of Turkey is the legal successor of the Ottoman Empire.

in international law.. if it was dug up in ur country.. its owned by that country...

and turkey is in many respects the succesor to the people of pergamum... thos guys didnt vnaish.. they became romans, then byzantines, and now turks...

and dont even get me started about Schliemann he flat out stole all that jewelry and other artifacts... and those must be returned asap as well

[FliegerAD]

So Humann, Conze, and Curtius should have violated the mutual treaty of their government with another allied government and stood by watching the destruction of the Pergamon Altar, for some guys on the internet 140 years later say it belongs to them, while none of them would utter a word of thanks to them for saving the Altar from sure destruction – Now that makes sense boys.

[Thorn777]

Its certainly worth several visits just for this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishtar_Gate, luckily I live in Berlin.

But please come spend your money here, we need it!

[Marie Louise von Preussen]

This all boils down to a ridiculous Third World inferiority complex. People can't admit that their countries sucked and that no one would have done it save for a chosen few, so they call them criminals and try to re-invent a past solution they don't know about. Fact is, without the efforts of Schilemann and the like, these marvellous artifacts would already have been looted and broken, or never even appeared to daylight until our days. Noone of their glorious ancestors ever bothered with them and their history until some German or some French came to enlighten them on it.

Face the facts: the archaeological rise in the XIX was the product of a very few bright European minds. There's no amount of crying, regret or jealousy that will change that. We are lucky that these men existed at all - lest there should be nothing else remaining. Again, I reiterate.