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From Nineveh to New York
Book Description
Synopsis
Russell traces the history of the Assyrian reliefs now in the collection of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art and a relief at Canford School, formerly Lady
Charlotte Guest's Canford Manor, in Dorset, England, that the author
rediscovered in 1992. Index.
Annotation
This book tells the vivid story of Sir Austen Henry Layard`s nineteenth-century
rediscovery of ancient Assyria and its fabled capital, Nineveh, and of the
subsequent collection, dispersal, and frantic twentieth-century reacquisition of
Layard`s huge collection of ancient Assyrian art. With previously unpublished
photographs, illustrations from rare nineteenth-century sources, and first-hand
accounts, the book sheds new light on the history and meaning of Assyrian art
and on taste, dealing, and collecting over two centuries.
From The Publisher
The story of Sir Austen Henry Layard's rediscovery of ancient Assyria and its
fabled capital, Nineveh, is one of the great tales of nineteenth-century
archeological imperialism, genius, and romance. In this social history of the
reception of ancient Assyrian art in England and subsequently America, John
Malcolm Russell focuses on the huge collection of artifacts that Layard brought
back to England. Much went to the British Museum, but much also to the
fascinating Lady Charlotte Guest and then - via a Manhattan dealer and numerous
competitive curators and millionaires - to the Metropolitan Museum.
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