Iranian and British national museums face off over artifact

by Sean McLachlan on

Iran’s national museum has cut off ties with the British Museum because of a controversy over a 2,500 year-old cuneiform tablet called the Cyrus cylinder. One of the most important artifacts from Persian civilization, the cylinder was supposed to be loaned to Iran but the loan has been delayed. Iran says the delay is politically motivated, but the British Museum says they need to compare the artifact to two similar tablets that were discovered recently. This is a change from the reason they gave back in October, citing the insecure situation after Iran’s disputed national elections.

In anticipation of displaying the cylinder in Tehran, the National Museum of Iran has spent $200,000 to enhance its security systems, but now it has nothing to display. The UK now faces the possibility of having all its scientific and cultural missions to Iran canceled. The move is similar to what Egypt did to the Louvre a few months ago in protest over some artifacts stolen from the Valley of the Kings.

The Cyrus cylinder was made in 539 BC to commemorate Cyrus the Great’s conquest of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. The inscription is significant for several reasons. It mentions returning exiles to their homeland, which might refer to the end of the Jews’ Babylonian captivity. Some scholars have written that this passage and others about just rule make the cylinder is the world’s first declaration of human rights, although it is by no means comparable to a modern constitution. The text is online here.

Giant colon opens in Canada

by Sean McLachlan on

A forty-foot long colon big enough to walk through is touring Canada.

Don’t worry, this isn’t the diseased byproduct of eating too much poutine; it’s actually an educational exhibit set up by the Ministry of Health, the Colorectal Cancer Association of Canada, and Long-Term Care and Cancer Care Ontario. The display, which looks like a disturbing take on the traditional bouncy castle, is an innovative way to teach Canadians about the diseases of the colon.

The Giant Colon is an inflatable tube that illustrates what various colon diseases look like. Video monitors show lectures by “Dr. Preventino”, a medical muppet who guides you through the display and dispenses tips on keeping your colon healthy. The focus is on colorectal cancer, the second-leading cause of cancer death in Canada. This type of cancer is easily preventable with proper diet and regular exercise. The Colorectal Cancer Association of Canada has an informative FAQ here, and tips on how a healthy lifestyle can reduce your risk of cancer here.

The show has been making the rounds in Canada for a few years now and is currently in Waterloo, Ontario. You can take a video tour of the Giant Colon here.%Gallery-73512%

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Follow a Museum Day on Twitter becomes Internet phenomenon

by Sean McLachlan on

Today’s prize for obscure made-up celebrations goes to Jim Richardson, organizer of “Follow a Museum Day on Twitter”, which was celebrated Feb. 1 all over the Internet. According to the folks over at Culture24 it was the hottest topic that day, shoving aside a scandal involving the captain of England’s football team and the release of the iPad as the most popular subject tweeted in the UK, US, and Canada.

No longer content with traditional methods of research and education, museums are reaching out by getting Internet savvy and keeping visitors up-to-date via flashy websites and Twitter. Travel writer and Italy expert Angela Nickerson points out that hundreds of museums are on Twitter and gives five reasons to follow them. She also has a good list of more than a hundred personal favorites. Richardson has a list by country on his website.

Following museums is a great way to find out about the latest events, and you can check while traveling with your mobile phone. For example, recent additions to the British Museum’s Twitter feed tell you about intriguing artifacts from the museum’s collection, an upcoming film screening, and links to other UK museums.

Unlike some Twitter feeds, museums tend to only put out quality information. You won’t hear what the curator had for breakfast or how bored the guards are at work. These are the kinds of feeds that can make Twitter useful rather than a massive time waster. You can find out more by logging onto Twitter and checking out #followamuseum.

“Degenerate Art” scattered by Nazis back in German museum

by Sean McLachlan on

Back in the 1920s and 30s, the Museum Folkwang in Essen, Germany, had one of the best collections of contemporary art in the world. The Nazis didn’t like modernism, though, partially because they didn’t understand it, and partially because so many Jews, liberals, and homosexuals were prominent in the art scene. It didn’t help that modern art questioned values such as nationalism and militarism. So out went the art, scattered around the globe and into collections that put taste before politics.

Now it’s coming back. The Folkwang just finished a major redesign and to celebrate they’re collecting many of the old works that the Nazis had branded as “Degenerate Art.” The exhibition The Most Beautiful Museum in the World runs from March 20 to July 25 and includes 1,400 works taken from the museum in 1936. Works by such prominent artists as Chagall, Gauguin, and Kandinsky will hang next to lesser-known works that attracted the ire of the Nazis.

Yet the Nazi connection doesn’t stop there. The 55 million euro ($77 million) redesign was supplied by Berthold Beitz, a 96 year-old German industrialist. Back during WWII he ran several oil refineries in occupied Poland to supply the German army, but he also saved the lives of 800 Jews by convincing authorities he needed them to work in his refineries and offices. Yad Vashem includes him in the Righteous among the Nations.

Besides the museum, Essen offers lots of green space, a historic city center, an elegant cathedral, a tour of a massive coal mine, and a wide variety of cultural events.

Roman “Swiss Army knife” goes on display

by Sean McLachlan on

The Romans were an inventive bunch. They had running water, flush toilets, and mass media two thousand years ago. They also had their own version of the Swiss Army knife.

The curious artifact pictured here is part of the newly remodeled displays at The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England. “Discovering Greece and Rome” reopened today after a £950,000 ($1.5 million) refurbishment that involved eighteen months of careful research, conservation, and construction.

The Roman Swiss Army knife has a knife, spoon, fork, spike, spatula, and small pick. Archaeologists think the spike might have helped in extracting meat from snails, a popular Roman food, and the spatula in poking sauce out of narrow-necked bottles. The pick could have served as a toothpick. This isn’t the only Roman folding knife that’s been found, but they’re usually bronze and this one is silver and has a lot more gadgets. It dates to the third or fourth century A.D.

The museum has thousands of rare and one-of-a-kind artifacts from the Classical world, including a 3,000 year-old cosmetics box, intricately carved sarcophagi, elegant Greek vases, and everyday items from the civilizations that gave us so much of our own culture. Maps and a time line put everything into context.

During the refurbishment, museum staff removed a series of ancient stone inscriptions from one of the gallery’s false walls and discovered a time capsule placed there by the team that did the last remodel back in the 1960s. Inside was a copy of the Cambridge News dated Friday 10 May 1963, a selection of contemporary coins, and the names of the 1960s team carved into the cement. The Fitzwilliam didn’t say if they repeated the time capsule trick. The next team will just have to find out for themselves sometime in the future.%Gallery-45674%

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