Szőcs, Miriam : Rebirth of a Collection. The Plaster Casts of the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest in the Renewed Star Fortress in Komárom

Kay Boers – Becca Grose – Rebecca Usherwood – Guy Walker (eds.), Erasure in Late AntiquityBudapest 2024ISBN 978-615-6696-25-0 (hardcover) ISBN 978-615-6696-26-7 (softcover) 293 S./pp., zahlr. Farb- und S/W-Abb./num. colour and b/w-figs., 20,5 x 15 cm; broschiert/softcover

Zoltán Niederreiter (ed.), Mesopotamia. Kingdom of Gods and DemonsBudapest 2024ISBN 978-615-6595-33-1496 S./pp., zahlr. Farb- und S/W-Abb./num. colour and b/w-figs., 30,5 x 23,5 cm; kartoniert/hardcover The comprehensive and representative catalogue accompanies the exhibition „Mesopotamia. Kingdom of Gods and Demons“ at the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest (4 October 2024 – 2 February 2025) and includes contributions from some of the most eminent Hungarian and international experts on the subject. The large-scale exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts takes visitors to Mesopotamia in the first half of the first millennium BCE, where they can see magnificent reliefs from Assyrian palaces, such as the shining blue snake-dragon from the Ishtar Gate in Babylon and the glazed brick lions that adorned the procession route. The Mesopotamian world of gods and demons is brought to life through cylinder seals, statues and amulets made of minerals and rocks, but we also evoke the story of the flood from Mesopotamian mythology, the legendary figures of Nimrod and Ninus, and the Tower of Babel.The artefacts from Aššur, Babylon, Dūr-Šarrukīn and Kalḫu excavated in Mesopotamia come from major European collections, including the Vorderasiatisches Museum in Berlin, the Musée du Louvre and the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris, the Kunsthistoriches Museum in Vienna and the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen (in addition to the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts).

Anna Aklan, Land of Buddhas – Gandhāra. Catalogue of the Gandhāran Sculptures of the Ferenc Hopp Museum of Asiatic ArtsBudapest 2024ISBN 978-615-81396-7-0 248 S./pp., zahlr. Farb-Abb./num. colour figs., 32 x 23 cm; kartoniert/hardcoverThe Ferenc Hopp Museum of Asiatic Arts, Budapest, holds eighty-one Gandhāran statues. Exquisite Buddha and bodhisattva statues are included in this collection, which comprise a representative group of this unique Hellenistic style Buddhist school of sculpture. Almost the entire collection was gifted to the institution by Imre Schwaiger, a Hungarian-born, internationally acclaimed art dealer and connoisseur in the first half of the twentieth century. Although the most outstanding statues have been exhibited at the museum since they arrived, the first occasion when the entire collection was put on display took place only this year, in 2024, when the temporary exhibition Land of Buddhas – Gandhāra opened its doors to the visitors. Accompanying the exhibition, for the very first time, a comprehensive catalogue of all the artworks of the Gandhāran collection, illustrated with fresh and artistic photographs, is published.The catalogue includes the description of each Gandhāran sculpture in the collection, which is complemented by a study on conservation of the statues written by Zoltán Hering, stone conservator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, who handled the statues and conducted material analyses. A detailed study on the life of Imre Schwaiger is also placed in the present volume to give an account of this generous art expert and his interesting life, starting out from Hungary and building a successful art dealership in India and in London.

Miriam Szőcs – Márton Tóth (eds.), Casting a New Light. Plaster Casts & Cast Collections in Europe and BeyondBudapest 2024ISBN 978-615-6595-23-2178 S./pp., zahlr. Farb-Abb./num. colour figs., 27 x 23 cm; broschiert/softcover This volume publishes the papers of the international conference Plaster Casts & Cast Collections across Europe: History and Future, held in the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest on 24 May 2022. The conference was organised in celebration of the refurbishment of the plaster cast collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, and its exhibition in the Star Fortress in Komárom, opened in the autumn of 2021, and in the visible storage in the newly built National Museum Conservation and Storage Centre in Budapest, the installation of which was finished in 2022. Featuring a collection of papers, including several case studies, the volume delves into various aspects of collecting and showcasing plaster casts, an important phenomenon that shaped European and American art museums from the nineteenth century onwards. It explores international connections and influences in the establishment of cast collections while also shedding new light on the role and uses of plaster casts in the antiquity and in the era of historicism. Moreover, the volume offers valuable reflections on the intricate contexts of the contemporary reception of these collections, presenting new perspectives on their significance and future.