Pergamon Museum

We decided to do a short working day at the Staatsbibliotek and instead discover the most visited museum of Germany, the Pergamon museum in the Museuminsel. Normally I’m of the opinion that the art of ancient Greece should be explored in Greece and pharaoh mummies in Egypt. However, the Pergamon museum is not to be missed and I enjoyed it enormously. It has an antique, Islamic and Middle Eastern art collections. As I am already preparing myself for our trip to Egypt in two months, I was especially interested in Islamic art that I am not so familiar with. It was mostly decorative art with for example books, carpets, prayer niches, and plates but the collection also contains some really amazing pieces like the façade of Mschatta palace and a superbly painted room of a house in Aleppo (see photos below). These extremely beautiful items really made me want to visit Iran, Syria and other Islamic countries as well.

The museum is named after its huge frieze of the Pergamon Altar dating 165 BC (the first photo). It was discovered like many other items in the museum by a German archaeologist in Turkey in the late 19th century (the ruins of Bergama are in the photo below). Another magnificent piece is the market gate of Miletus, also brought from Turkey. It was seriously damaged in the Second World War and it makes you wonder why it (and the Pergamon frieze as well as many others) was brought to Germany in the first place. For this reason, I usually hesitate to visit museums of Antiquities or exotic cultures in countries where the art doesn’t originate and where it is often a mere souvenir of colonialism.


Why are these items in a museum in Berlin Museumisland and not in Turkey where we could admire them in their original surroundings making the experience much more effective. Of course, some of the valuable pieces would have been destroyed if left in the place of origin; this is the case for many ancient Greek art items that were saved by the British Museum. However, is there a time when they should be returned back to Greece? Probably many more people can enjoy them in London or Berlin in these popular museums that gather much more visitors than a little museum in Greece or Turkey but do the people there have an inherent right to these cultural treasures more than tourists in Berlin do? This reminds me of the news from last February when China reclaimed its right to two bronze statues being sold in Yves Saint Laurent’s auction at Christie’s (see photo below). French and British troops likely looted these statues from China 150 years ago. However, French court ruled that the auction can continue.


I strongly felt this injustice when I visited a museum of African art in Dakar, Senegal. The museum was almost childishly organised and didn’t have many exceptional items. Well, it didn’t have so many visitors either. Nevertheless, I couldn’t help of thinking of the superb museum (well, I have to admit that it is pretty amazing) Quai Branly in Paris, the initiative of the president Jacques Chirac. It has a vast collection of non-European art from all over the world. Not only are these interesting pieces well organised in the modern building but a visitor can learn about them with interactive video displays, film and music. Just the fact that in Quai Branly’s website you can do a video flash visit and, in comparison, the museum in Dakar just has a short introduction in Wikipedia tells a lot about this reality. How can a poor museum in Dakar compete against this kind of a super museum filled with art and the most advanced technology? Obviously, the majority of the visitors can never travel to these far-away countries and Quai Branly (or any museum alike) gives them the opportunity to understand other cultures and their history and art. But I still felt extremely sad in that little museum in Dakar that could only afford to show a few musical instruments and scenes of African life displaying self-made looking puppets made out of pulp.

I will get back to you later on the topic when I visit the museum of Islamic Art in Cairo.

P.S. Just doscovered an article on the issue in Al Ahram Weekly