Museum Studies Blog at Tufts University

Happy New Year Museum lovers!

Here’s to the next twelve months of dialogue, thoughtful interpretation, social action, and reflection in our institutions.

With a new year, comes a host of new museums opening around the world!  Here are 8 new museums opening in 2018. Take a look, be inspired, and plan a visit!

•  Guardian Art Center, Beijing
  • Opening: May 2018
  • This institution serves the public in a bi-fold manner; a museum and a modern auction house. It is an innovative idea for a creative, modern space set amid the ancient backdrop of Beijing
• The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration, Montgomery, Alabama
  • Opening: April 2018
  • This powerful museum, located at the location of the former slave warehouse in Montgomery, will explore historical and contemporary issues of slavery, segregation, racial terrorism, etc.
• Grand Egyptian Museum, Giza Egypt
  • Opening: Late 2018
  • Not only does this massive institution display objects relating to Egypt’s colorful history, this museum provides one of the best views from which to view the colossal pyramids!
• Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), Richmond, VA
  • Opening: April 2018
  • The largest arts project in this college’s history, this Institute of contemporary art will be opening with a show comprised of 30 artists, all dealing with contemporary, Social Issues
• Victoria and Albert Museum of Design, Dundee, Scotland
  • Opening: Late Summer 2018
  • Scotland’s first museum to exclusively display design throughout the 20^th century, is anchored in the River Tay, Yes, it is an actual floating watercraft.
• Nordic Museum, Seattle, Washington
  • Opening May 2018
  • Even the structure of this museum screams NORWAY, as the angular walls are meant to represent fjords. Check out Scandinavian film, art, history, and culture in this smartly designed space.
• Glenstone Museum, Maryland,
  • Opening: late 2018
  • This museum, featuring landscape, architecture, and contemporary art, is set to include a water garden in its newly constructed space right outside of DC.
• Fotografiska, London
  • Opening November 2018
  • With an original branch in Sweden, this photography museum is expanding to London, and will feature exhibits all year round from legendary photographers

This post comes from Amanda Wall, a first-year in the Museum Education program. 

The Metropolitan Museum has handed over a Late Phoenician marble “Bull’s Head” to Manhattan Court Prosecutors after the owners dropped their federal lawsuit fighting the repatriation when presented definite proof of the artifacts origins from the Directorate General of Antiquities. Lynda and William Beierwaltes, Colorado art collectors, purchased the artifact in good faith for $1 million in 1996 from a London based dealer. In 2010 the Beierwaltes sold the marble “Bull’s Head” to Michael H. Steinhardt in 2010 who loaned the marble statue to the Met this past year. Curators at The Met raised concerns of the provenance of the object and contacted Lebanese authorities in July. Upon learning of the provenance dispute of the object, Steinhardt relinquished ownership of the object back to the Beierwaltes. The 2,300 year old statue will be returning to Lebanon for display at the National Museum of Beirut.

This case has become further complicated by the discovery of a second stolen Lebanese artifact found to have been purchased by the Beierwaltes based on a 1998 profile of the couple in Home & Country. The second antiquity “an archaic marble torso of a calf bearer,” was was purchased in 1996 for $4.5 through the same dealer, and similarly was later sold to Steinhardt in 2015. A warrant for its seizure was issued on October 10th and will be repatriated for display at the National Museum of Beirut following the owner’s relinquishment of claim.

Both antiquities were stolen from storage warehouses in Byblos during the Lebanese Civil War, along with 600 more artifacts, all ending up on the black market. The two objects were unearthed in 1967 at the excavations of the Temple of Eshmun, one of the best preserved Phoenician sites in Lebanon. The excavations at the site, representing the end of the Phoenician Period around 450 B.C., were held from 1963 to the start of the Lebanese civil war in 1975 and were led by French archaeologist Maurice Dunand. The statues are especially valuable as they are very characteristic of the time period and are made from marble, a resource not found in Lebanon and therefore imported to build the Temple of Eshmun.

The successful repatriation of these artifacts were due to careful recording of the excavations that provided photographic evidence of their provenance. Previously, eight other antiquities from the Temple of Eshmun have been successfully repatriated after being discovered in Switzerland by archaeologist Rolf Stucky. The lawsuit for these two objects highlights the importance of careful documentation of archaeological excavations. The looting of the Temple of Eshmun was the largest documented looting in the Lebanese civil war. However, countless more artifacts were looted during the war from illegal excavations with no documentation to prove provenance.

Articles for more reading:

New York Times, August

New York Times, October

Al-Monitor, November