…continued from Part Two… Near East A small but interesting selection of objects from the Near East starts our exploration of the ancient world – with a brief detour to the 14th century for a cute bowl from Antioch. Ancient Egypt The museum has an unexpectedly fascinating collection of Egyptian objects – I could have spent longer looking, but it…
…Continued from Part One… Greece and Rome The stars of the collection are in the upstairs galleries. The Roman art is, frankly, extraordinary. Jacobsen had an agent in Rome who helped him acquire some of the most beautiful and delicate works of art – and the range of busts is even more amazing. But let’s begin with a lion, who…
The Carlsberg Glyptotek, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, Denmark The name Carlsberg is synonymous with beer. It’s quite funny that with every bottle of beer that got guzzled, the Carlsberg family was able to amass a fortune which was put towards buying art. Next time you want a beer that supports the fine arts, buy Carlsberg. But seriously, the history of…
The Museum of Mediterranean and Near Eastern Antiquities, Medelhavsmuseet, Stockholm, Sweden Clearly if a town has a museum dedicated to the ancient world, I’m there. And I’ll probably be there for a long time. And I was at the Mediterranean Museum for much longer than I expected – and still didn’t see the entire collection. I totally missed the Islamic section,…
Cantonal Museum of Money, Musée monétaire cantonal, Lausanne, Switzerland Now I know that looking at defunct coins that have no current purchasing power is not interesting to everyone, but I am a fan. The amount you can learn from coinage is amazing, quite apart from the fact that many coins from the Greek world are extremely beautiful. The Cantonal Museum of…