DOI Artikel:
Lipińska, Jadwiga: Egyptian sculptures and reliefs "Brought" by Professor Kazimierz Michałowski from Edfu
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18950#0050
Jadwiga Lipińska
Egyptian Sculptures
and Reliefs "Brought"
by Professor Kazimierz Michałowski
from Edfu
Objects excavated at Edfu by the Polish-French Mission (1936-1939)
enabled Kazimierz Michałowski to create an Egyptian section of the Ancient
Art department at the National Museum in Warsaw already in 1938. For a
long time it was his dream and the target of his actiyity to establish such
gallery as a centre for study and education. He used all possible means to
enrich the collections, one of them being to carry out excavations in Egypt,
because at that time the Antiąuities Law in that country was morę liberał than
in other Mediterranean countries, and it was possible to receive permission
from the Egyptian authorities to take part of the finds abroad. The French
colleagues were very helpful: not only did they resign from their share of
antiąuities assigned to the expedition by the Egyptian authorities, but also
supplemented the lot with many objects from their own previous works at
Edfu. This was not the end of their generosity and understanding for the
needs of the new gallery being formed in Warsaw: the French Institute in
Cairo, and its director-general Pierre Jouget donated large groups of objects
excavated at Deir el-Medina, Meir and Kom el-Ahmar to be added to finds
from Edfu. Michałowski praised the French generosity everywhere until the
end of his days, (he called his French colleagues, and especially Pierre Jouget,
“proven friends”), and the objects, somewhat impaired during the Second
World War, still constitute a core of the Egyptian Section of the Ancient Art
Collection at the National Museum in Warsaw.
During the war all records concerning these objects were destroyed, and
enąuiries at the French Institute in Cairo brought no results: no lists of
contents of the crates sent from Egypt to Poland were located, no partage
documents. At that time the formalities were simple and the draft of the
report served as the record. After the ceremony of the division of the finds
was completed, nobody bothered with the documentation. But even so, there
were the customs formalities, and lists of the contents of shipped crates should
48
Egyptian Sculptures
and Reliefs "Brought"
by Professor Kazimierz Michałowski
from Edfu
Objects excavated at Edfu by the Polish-French Mission (1936-1939)
enabled Kazimierz Michałowski to create an Egyptian section of the Ancient
Art department at the National Museum in Warsaw already in 1938. For a
long time it was his dream and the target of his actiyity to establish such
gallery as a centre for study and education. He used all possible means to
enrich the collections, one of them being to carry out excavations in Egypt,
because at that time the Antiąuities Law in that country was morę liberał than
in other Mediterranean countries, and it was possible to receive permission
from the Egyptian authorities to take part of the finds abroad. The French
colleagues were very helpful: not only did they resign from their share of
antiąuities assigned to the expedition by the Egyptian authorities, but also
supplemented the lot with many objects from their own previous works at
Edfu. This was not the end of their generosity and understanding for the
needs of the new gallery being formed in Warsaw: the French Institute in
Cairo, and its director-general Pierre Jouget donated large groups of objects
excavated at Deir el-Medina, Meir and Kom el-Ahmar to be added to finds
from Edfu. Michałowski praised the French generosity everywhere until the
end of his days, (he called his French colleagues, and especially Pierre Jouget,
“proven friends”), and the objects, somewhat impaired during the Second
World War, still constitute a core of the Egyptian Section of the Ancient Art
Collection at the National Museum in Warsaw.
During the war all records concerning these objects were destroyed, and
enąuiries at the French Institute in Cairo brought no results: no lists of
contents of the crates sent from Egypt to Poland were located, no partage
documents. At that time the formalities were simple and the draft of the
report served as the record. After the ceremony of the division of the finds
was completed, nobody bothered with the documentation. But even so, there
were the customs formalities, and lists of the contents of shipped crates should
48