Good morning to griffin lovers! News broke today that the famed 7thC BCE bronze griffin head now at the Met will be returned to Greece. It was likely taken from Olympia in the 1930s. Read the 🎁 article: this is the power of provenance research. Handover Ceremony is today in NYC. - ThreadSky

sarahebond.bsky.social • 7 days ago

Good morning to griffin lovers! News broke today that the famed 7thC BCE bronze griffin head now at the Met will be returned to Greece. It was likely taken from Olympia in the 1930s. Read the 🎁 article: this is the power of provenance research. Handover Ceremony is today in NYC.

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sarahebond.bsky.social•7 days ago

Why is this case so important? Well, as the article notes, it is the first piece repatriated by @lucians.bsky.social, the Met's head of provenance research, appointed in mid-2024. His team has gone from 6 to 11! https://hyperallergic.com/879843/met-museum-hires-sothebys-staffer-lucian-simmons-to-lead-provenance-research/

sarahebond.bsky.social•7 days ago

Seeing museums beefing up provenance research in the U.S. is important, and probably the best example of that is the @gettymuseum.bsky.social 's digital humanities project: the https://www.getty.edu/research/tools/provenance/search.html Getty Provenance Index® (GPI). I appreciate that a portion of the data is on their Github.

sarahebond.bsky.social•7 days ago

I also used to really appreciate Art Tracks from the Carnegie Museum of Art (CMOA)—but it has seemed pretty dormant since 2016? Also it makes it really hard to find by putting it on Github and not usually the main website OR saying when they modify museum labels. https://github.com/arttracks/museum_provenance?tab=readme-ov-file

sarahebond.bsky.social•7 days ago

Also so thankful for the work of scholars like @artcrimeprof.bsky.social, @lizmarlowe.bsky.social, @monicahanna.bsky.social & many more.

Many DH projects on provenance formed in the mid-2010s. It is important not only to push these projects to continue, but to make them more digitally transparent!

sarahebond.bsky.social•7 days ago

The work is never done; it is a constant process. But I appreciate it when repatriation happens AND public websites, museums labels, and internal data are also updated to reflect it.

Hopefully this digital Met label will soon be modified to indicate repatriation! https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/255367

bleaktheology.bsky.social•7 days ago

Thanks for this. I was at the Met this month chaperoning my 11yo’s class field trip to the ancient wings and noticed the griffin was not there. It’s a favorite of mine, unsurprisingly. I’m happy it’s going back where it belongs.

sarahebond.bsky.social•7 days ago

Yes, and it will come back on loan, they say. Just glad that this is happening but lots of work still to go!

bleaktheology.bsky.social•7 days ago

Also, I’m still waiting for the Art Crimes: Antiquities series on Netflix we all deserve.

sarahebond.bsky.social•7 days ago

I mean I’d talk to @artcrimeprof.bsky.social about that!

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