Mildenberg Collection

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The Mildenberg Collection was a private archaeological collection in Switzerland of works of art that the numismatist Leo Mildenberg had collected since 1950. It consisted of animal images from five millennia of antiquity and was the largest of its kind in the world.

Leo Mildenberg began collecting archaeological artifacts showing animals in 1950. These are works of cabaret, statuettes, decorations on equipment and jewelry, mosaic pictures, fabrics and vase pictures . When collecting, Mildenberg did not limit himself to a specific time and space, or to specific animal species from the Old World . The only criterion for him was the freedom of animals. They were not allowed to wear a reins, saddles or any other sign of human rule.

For example, the collection included a terracotta figure of an ostrich-like bird from the Indus region of the 3rd millennium BC. BC, a Mittanisches cylinder seal from the early 13th century BC. BC, showing the ibex, an Urartian silver robe pin with griffin protomes from the 7th century BC. Or a Sarmatian belt buckle from around 200 BC. BC, which shows a lying camel. Other pieces from the Near East came from Mesopotamia , Elam , the Caucasus , Anatolia and Syria ; individual pieces also came from the Islamic period. Ancient Egypt was represented with pieces such as a turtle amulet from the early dynastic period, through finds from the Old, Middle and New Kingdoms to pieces from the Ptolemaic period and finds from Meroe . The largest part of the collection consisted of finds from classical antiquity . An early Corinthian vase painter of alabastrene was given the emergency name " Mildenberg painter " after items from the collection .

Exhibitions

The collection has been made available to the public several times in exhibitions since 1981. In 1981 the first exhibition was held at the Cleveland Museum of Art , which was made accessible through the catalog "Animals in Ancient Art from the Leo Mildenberg Collection".

1983/84 made the exhibition under the title “Animal Pictures from Four Millennia. Antiques of the Mildenberg Collection ”in Berlin , Kassel (State Art Collections), Hamburg ( Museum of Art and Industry ), Munich ( Prehistoric State Collection ) and Freiburg ( Museum of Prehistory and Early History Freiburg ). A catalog of the same name by Ulrich Gehrig with the collaboration of Adolf Greifenhagen Kay Kohlmeyer , Gertrud Platz and Konrad Schauenburg was published by Philipp von Zabern .

In 1996/97 a second exhibition was held in Munich and the Reiss Museum in Mannheim under the title “From Noah's Ark. Animal Pictures from the Mildenberg Collection from Five Millennia ”. A catalog of the same name was published again by Zabern-Verlag. It was designed by Gisela Zahlhaas .

The difference between the two exhibitions was of a conceptual nature. While the first was arranged according to spatial and temporal criteria, the second time was sorted according to motifs.

After Mildenberg's death in 2001, at Mildenberg's express request, the collection was auctioned at Christie's in London in 2004 and 2005 and thus scattered.

literature

  • Arielle P. Kozloff (Ed.): Animals in ancient art. From the Leo Mildenberg Collection , von Zabern, Mainz 1986 ISBN
  • Ulrich Gehrig : Animal pictures from four millennia. Antiquities d. Mildenberg Collection , von Zabern, Mainz 1983 ISBN 3-8053-0737-3 / ISBN 3-8053-0746-2
  • Arielle P. Kozloff, David Gordon Mitten and Michel Sguaitamatti: More animals in ancient art. From the Leo Mildenberg Collection , von Zabern, Mainz 1986 ISBN 3-8053-0927-9
  • Gisela Zahlhaas : From Noah's Ark. Animal pictures from the Mildenberg collection from five millennia , von Zabern, Mainz 1996 (exhibition catalogs of the Prehistoric State Collection, Vol. 29) ISBN 3-8053-1905-3 / ISBN 3-8053-1995-9
  • Alan S. Walker: Animals in ancient art. From the Leo Mildenberg Collection. Part III , von Zabern, Mainz 1996 ISBN 3-8053-1905-3
  • Jane Biers (Ed.): Animals in ancient art. From the Leo Mildenberg Collection. Part VI , von Zabern, Mainz 1996 ISBN 3-8053-3395-1