Emory collection will be unique
By Catherine Fox
Visual Arts Critic
With the arrival of the new collection
of Egyptian artifacts, Emory University's Michael C. Carlos
Museum makes a great leap. But only an Atlanta metabooster would
try to compare the Canoe Museum to the world's great collections.
So
forget the Cairo Museum, the Louvre, British Museum, Brooklyn
Museum, Metropolitan Museum and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
If you want an apples-to-apples comparison, look to the great
university teaching museums of the United States.
Even
then, compiling a ranking is a bit specious because each of
those on the list - University of Pennsylvania, John Hopkins
University, University of Memphis, University of Michigan. among
them - has a different emphasis, according to Gay Robins, Emory
University's professor of Egyptian art.
What's
clear is that the quality and character of the new acquisitions
will make Emory unique in the Southeast and a superior repository
for coffins.
"The
26th and 21st dynasties, when our new coffins were made, are
the best periods for coffins," she says. "This is a neglected
field of study, and they are so full of information about painting
and woodworking techniques as well as Egyptian beliefs."
Gayle
Gibson, an Egyptologist at Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum, who
has studied the Niagara Falls mummies for years, agrees.
"This
is a very important historical collection," she says. "One mummy
is a woman, almost certainly one who was very important in her
day. One might be royal. The coffins themselves are very fine.
"The
collection will be even more important after the objects have
been researched by Gay Robins and Peter Lacovara, both highly
respected experts. This collection will make Atlanta a very
important center."
Indeed,
the Carlos is already receiving requests for loans.
"The
Birmingham Museum wants a coffin for 'Searching for Ancient
Egypt,' a traveling show in October," says curator Peter Lacovara.
"We've even had a request from Canada."
