MFA Boston returns Ceramic Child’s Coffin to the Gustavianum in Sweden

The coffin was scientifically excavated in 1920 at Gurob, Egypt by the British School of Archaeology in Egypt under the direction of Flinders Petrie. The publication Unseen Images: Archive Photographs in the Petrie Museum (2008) includes a photograph of the coffin in the process of excavation. There, it is noted that the coffin was sent to Uppsala as part of the division of finds, a system that distributed ownership of excavated artifacts. Curatorial staff at the Gustavianum confirmed that the coffin was sent to the Victoria Museum of Egyptian Antiquities at Uppsala University, as it was then called, in 1922. The museum catalogued and numbered it. The coffin has been missing from the museum since at least 1970.

“It has been wonderful working with our colleagues in Uppsala on this matter, and it is always gratifying to see a work of art return to its rightful owner, said Victoria Reed, Sadler Senior Curator of Provenance. “In this case, we were fortunate to have an excavation photograph showing where and when the coffin was found, so that we could begin to correct the record. Anytime we deaccession and restitute a work of art from the museum, it serves as a good reminder that we need to exercise as much diligence as possible as we build the collection.”

The MFA purchased the coffin in 1985 from an agent who claimed to represent the Swedish artist Eric Ståhl (1918–1999). The MFA was given a letter purportedly written by Ståhl, which describes how he excavated the coffin himself at Amada, Egypt, in 1937. For years, the MFA published the coffin online and in printed catalogues with this provenance. Ståhl, however, is not known to have participated in any excavation in Egypt. The MFA was also given authentications for the coffin from experts in Sweden that now appear to be falsified.

Curatorial staff noted the discrepancy between the MFA’s provenance and the evidence offered by the excavation photograph. This prompted an investigation into the coffin’s acquisition and ownership history. As part of this investigation, the MFA reached out to colleagues at the Gustavianum. The two institutions cooperatively and amicably exchanged information about the coffin and came to the same conclusion, namely that it was taken from Uppsala University’s collection without authorization and should be returned.