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‘Ugly but . . . important’: the Albanian Hoard and the making of the archaeological treasure in the early twentieth century
Author(s) -
Holcomb Melanie
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
early medieval europe
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.1
H-Index - 24
eISSN - 1468-0254
pISSN - 0963-9462
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0254.2008.00219.x
Subject(s) - treasure , hoard , byzantine architecture , metropolitan area , archaeology , artifact (error) , history , meaning (existential) , value (mathematics) , art , visual arts , computer science , psychology , machine learning , computer vision , psychotherapist
This paper deploys the Metropolitan Museum's Albanian (or Avar) Treasure as a case study to explore the role and value assigned to the named treasure during the early twentieth century, a moment when Americans – most notably J.P. Morgan – were among the wealthiest and most avid collectors of Byzantine and medieval art. Outlining the market conditions for such treasures, the archaeological practices that authenticated them, and the art historical categories that gave them meaning, the paper demonstrates the extent to which the archaeological treasure was a social creation built by various players: finders, dealers, scholars, museums and collectors.