A closer look at the Karlsruhe Cycladica

The connection between scientific studies and reassessing the acquisition of antiquities of unknown provenance

Abstract

Original title: Karlsruher Kykladika unter der Lupe. Zur Verbindung naturwissenschaftlicher Untersuchungen mit der Aufarbeitung des Erwerbs von Antiken ungewisser Provenienz

The return of Early Cycladic objects from the collection of the Badisches Landesmuseum of Karlsruhe resulted from the acknowledgment that the museum’s problematic former acquisitions policy needed to be revisited. But voluntary restitution can be only one element of a constructive solution for dealing with antiquities of unknown provenance acquired after the passage of the 1970 UNESCO convention, which must be found in cooperation with the homelands of ancient cultures. The specific reason for reappraising the acquisitions policy was a series of scientific investigations carried out on several Cycladic objects in the Karlsruhe collection using a portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometer and a scanning electron microscope. Rock types were determined and colour as well as sinter traces were analysed. These analyses gave information about the application of colour to and the place of origin of Cycladic stone vessels, even indicating, in the case of one ›frying pan‹, a Naxian deposit of chlorite schist