University of Münster returns marble head of dubious provenance

Rector Johannes Wessels and Museum Director Achim Lichtenberger hand over the find in Thessaloniki

A delegation from the University of Münster, led by the Rector  Johannes Wessels
A delegation from the University of Münster, led by the Rector Johannes Wessels (3rd from left), has returned an ancient marble head to the Greek state, represented by Minister of Culture Dr Lina Mendoni (4th from left) © Greek Ministery of Culture
The University of Münster has returned an ancient marble head of dubious provenance to the Greek state. A private owner in Essen gave the head to the University’s Archaeological Museum in 1989, but it remains a mystery how the donors came into possession of the ancient piece and who removed it from its original site and when. "That’s why we decided to repatriate the head to Thessaloniki," said Professor Achim Lichtenberger, the museum’s director, who travelled to Thessaloniki with the University’s Rector, Professor Johannes Wessels, to present the object to the Greek Minister of Culture, Lina Mendoni, and the director of the Archaeological Museum there, Dr Anastasia Gadolou.

"We at the University of Münster felt it was our ethical duty to return this important piece of cultural heritage," remarked Johannes Wessels as he handed over the Roman portrait head to the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki on Tuesday, 19 November. He added that provenance research was also an example of good cooperation between the humanities and natural sciences. Achim Lichtenberger has mixed feelings about the handover: "For me as the director of a University collection, it is a little painful to see such an exciting object leave our collection. But for me as an archaeologist, it is a joyful day that this marble portrait is returning to its place of origin and can be viewed and studied again together with other pieces from the same workshops and in its original historical context."

In 2019, the Archaeological Museum returned an ancient marble head from Fondi, 117 kilometres south-east of Rome, to the Italian state after its own research showed that it had been illegally exported. In the case of the Greek head, which was undoubtedly taken from a funerary relief, it is not clear how it ended up on the art market. It has not yet been mentioned in the specialist literature. Now Achim Lichtenberger and Dr Helge Nieswandt from the Archaeological Museum and Professor Laura Stutenbecker and Professor David De Vleeschouwer from the Institute of Geology and Palaeontology have been able to pinpoint its origin. Based on the sickle locks, the details of the eyes and mouth, and the reconstruction of the nose, which is now missing, the two archaeologists were able to establish a characteristic match with Imperial-era tomb reliefs in Thessaloniki. They believe that the head was made before 150 AD.

We want to give moral support to countries such as Greece that have been plundered in the past and are seeking the return of their antiquities.
Laura Stutenbecker and David De Vleeschouwer examined the composition of the marble and compared it with analyses of selected marble objects carried out last year at the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki. The results show that it is a dolomitic stone, the isotopic composition of which indicates that it came from quarries on the island of Thasos in north-eastern Greece. This is also the origin of the portrait heads in the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki.


"We cannot undo the damage caused by illegal art trade and illicit excavations, but we can at least do what is in our power to limit the damage and raise awareness of the problem. We also want to give moral support to countries such as Greece that have been plundered in the past and are seeking the return of their antiquities."

Background

For several years, museums, libraries and other institutions have been increasingly returning illicitly acquired art. Since 1998, the focus has been on looted art from the Nazi era, but now the provenance of artefacts from colonial contexts, for example, is also being explored. In the early years of archaeology in the 19th century, there were already laws in place in the countries of origin prohibiting the trade in antiquities. But these were often ignored. Illegal excavations destroyed cultural artefacts in the search for valuable objects. Ancient artefacts have repeatedly found their way into the art trade. The Archaeological Museum at the University of Münster actively seeks to determine the provenance of artefacts in its collections and to restitute problematic objects.