Allard Pierson Museum
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The Allard Pierson Museum is the
archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...
museum of the
University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, ) is a public university, public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Established in 1632 by municipal authorities, it is the fourth-oldest academic institution in the Netherlan ...
. It is situated at the Oude Turfmarkt 127 in
Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...
, the
Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
. Artifacts from the ancient civilizations of
ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...
, the Near East, the Greek World,
Etruria Etruria ( ) was a region of Central Italy delimited by the rivers Arno and Tiber, an area that covered what is now most of Tuscany, northern Lazio, and north-western Umbria. It was inhabited by the Etruscans, an ancient civilization that f ...
, and the
Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...
are curated and exhibited in this museum.


Allard Pierson

The name of the Allard Pierson Museum derives from the first professor of classical archaeology at the
University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, ) is a public university, public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Established in 1632 by municipal authorities, it is the fourth-oldest academic institution in the Netherlan ...
, Allard Pierson (1831–1896). This former clergyman was invited in 1877 to occupy the chair of Aesthetics, Art History, and Modern Languages at the newly founded university. His passion for antiquity, fuelled by his travels to the
Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...
area, led to his assembling a collection of plaster casts from 1877 to 1895.


Founding

The second professor of archeology at the University of Amsterdam, Jan Six, had a large personal collection of books and antique objects. At his death in 1926, the university had an interest in acquiring his collection. In 1932, Pierson's son Jan Lodewijk established the Allard Pierson Foundation in order to make the antiquities collection available for research and teaching. The collection was brought to a building on the Weesperzijde in Amsterdam, with the top floor serving as a museum. The collection grew due to purchases, gifts, and loans of artifacts and documents. On 12 November 1934, the Allard Pierson Museum was officially opened in a building at Sarphatistraat 129-131 (corner of the Roeterstraat). The museum eventually outgrew its building.


Building

A new building became available when the
Nederlandse Bank De Nederlandsche Bank (, , abbr. DNB) is the National central bank (Eurosystem), national central bank for the Netherlands within the Eurosystem. It was the Dutch central bank from 1814 to 1998, issuing the Dutch guilder, guilder. Since 2014, it ...
vacated their office at the Oude Turfmarkt in 1976. H.R.H. Princess
Beatrix Beatrix is a Latin feminine given name, most likely derived from ''Viatrix'', a feminine form of the Late Latin name ''Viator'' which meant "voyager, traveller" and later influenced in spelling by association with the Latin word ''beatus'' or "ble ...
attended the re-opening of the museum on 6 October 1976.


Collection

The museum has collections related to the ancient civilizations of
Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
, the
Near East The Near East () is a transcontinental region around the Eastern Mediterranean encompassing the historical Fertile Crescent, the Levant, Anatolia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and coastal areas of the Arabian Peninsula. The term was invented in the 20th ...
, the Greek World,
Etruria Etruria ( ) was a region of Central Italy delimited by the rivers Arno and Tiber, an area that covered what is now most of Tuscany, northern Lazio, and north-western Umbria. It was inhabited by the Etruscans, an ancient civilization that f ...
, and the
Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...
. The collections include art objects and utensils dating from 4000 BC to 500 AD. There are also scale models of ancient temples and buildings. In the Ancient Egypt exhibition there is a room dedicated to death, with mummies, sarcophagi, and a film showing the process of mummification. The plaster-cast attic, the “Gipsengalerij”, to be visited only with a guided tour, shows copies of Roman and Greek statues. The museum's Greek pottery collection features examples of
black-figure Black-figure pottery painting (also known as black-figure style or black-figure ceramic; ) is one of the styles of Ancient Greek vase painting, painting on pottery of ancient Greece, antique Greek vases. It was especially common between the 7th a ...
and
red-figure pottery Red-figure pottery () is a style of Pottery of ancient Greece, ancient Greek pottery in which the background of the pottery is painted black while the figures and details are left in the natural red or orange color of the clay. It developed in A ...
produced in the fifth and sixth centuries BC. A collection of Roman sarcophagi is also on display, including a rare wooden coffin from around 150 AD that is carved partly in the shape of the man within it. File:WLANL - andrevanb - terracotta etruskisch beeld van ingebakerde baby (2).jpg, Etrurian statuette of a tightly wrapped baby, possibly consecrated to the gods to avert children's diseases. 3rd–2nd century BC File:WLANL - Pachango - Allard Pierson - Bronzen Romeinse kop van een jongen.jpg, Bronze head of a Roman boy File:Osiris on Sarcophagus lid of Teuris (Allard Pierson museum Amsterdam, Egypt, Greek-Roman time) (4004387404).jpg,
Osiris Osiris (, from Egyptian ''wikt:wsjr, wsjr'') was the ancient Egyptian deities, god of fertility, agriculture, the Ancient Egyptian religion#Afterlife, afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation in ancient Egyptian religion. He was ...
on a sarcophagus lid, Egypt, 2nd century AD File:WLANL - 23dingenvoormusea - Spelende meisjes (1).jpg, Girls playing. Pottery,
Corinth Corinth ( ; , ) is a municipality in Corinthia in Greece. The successor to the ancient Corinth, ancient city of Corinth, it is a former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese (region), Peloponnese, which is located in south-central Greece. Sin ...
, circa 300 BC


Crimea exhibit dispute

In February 2014, it hosted the international exhibit " Crimea – Gold and Secrets of the Black Sea", which included
Scythian art Scytho-Siberian art is the art associated with the cultures of the Scytho-Siberian world, primarily consisting of decorative objects such as jewellery, produced by the nomadic tribes of the Eurasian Steppe, with the western edges of the region vag ...
objects from four museums located in
Crimea Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukrain ...
and from an additional one in mainland Ukraine. It was the largest international exhibit of Ukrainian treasures ever organized until then. One month later, the
Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation In February and March 2014, Russia invaded the Crimea, Crimean Peninsula, part of Ukraine, and then annexed it. This took place in the relative power vacuum immediately following the Revolution of Dignity. It marked the beginning of the Russ ...
created an international dispute on the artifacts' ownership because the Allard Pierson Museum had signed a series of agreements both with the Ukrainian Minister of Culture and with the single five donor institutions which had entered Russian jurisdiction. In September 2014, part of the exhibits of the exhibition that belonged to museums from mainland Ukraine were returned to Ukraine. Pending a resolution, the art works that belonged to museums in Crimea remained in storage in the Netherlands. After several rulings by Dutch courts in favor of Ukrainian claims, Ukrainian Culture Minister Rostyslav Karandieiev signed an agreement with Fred Virmen, acting director of the University Library of the University of Amsterdam to return the artifacts to Ukraine on 22 November 2023. The museum announced that the transfer had been completed on 27 November. The artifacts are currently stored at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine's branch in the
Kyiv Pechersk Lavra The Kyiv Pechersk Lavra or Kyievo-Pecherska Lavra (), also known as the Kyiv Monastery of the Caves, is a historic lavra or large monastery of Eastern Christianity that gave its name to the Pecherskyi District where it is located in Kyiv. Sin ...
. The museum stated that it would retain custody over the artifacts until the "de-occupation of Crimea".


The Society of Friends

The exhibitions and activities of the museum are supported by the Society of Friends of the Allard Pierson Museum, established in 1969. The Society has around 1500 members at present.


References


External links

* * {{Authority control 1934 establishments in the Netherlands Archaeological museums in the Netherlands Egyptological collections History of Amsterdam Museums in Amsterdam Museums established in 1934 Museums of ancient Greece in the Netherlands Museums of the ancient Near East in Europe Museums of ancient Rome in the Netherlands Plaster cast collections University museums in the Netherlands University of Amsterdam Neoclassical architecture in the Netherlands