VIRTUAL EXHIBIT 360°: Artefacts From The Land of Pharaohs & Mummies

Estonia’s first major exhibition of ancient Egyptian art "The Glory of Egypt", has been open in KUMU since October 10. It features objects that are thousands of years old from one of the world’s most important ancient Egyptian collections: the Museo Egizio (Egyptian Museum) in Turin, Italy. In 2017, we published Estonia's first virtual exhibition of the ancient Egypt, where we introduced original objects that belong to Estonian collections. We publish an updated version of this story.

Estonia and collecting Egyptian antiquities

Similarly to other parts of Europe, old high cultures started to excite the interest of Estonia in the 18^th century. Local Baltic Germans were particularly enraptured with Egypt, and in the 19^th century the University of Tartu became the centre of interest. The initiator was Otto Friedrich von Richter (1792–1816), a young and energetic Baltic German from Vastse-Kuuste. He was probably the only Estonian whose foot touched the Promised Land.

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Ushabti. Late Period, 26th Dynasty, 664–525 BC. Inscription: „The illuminated one, the Osiris, the God’s Father, the God’s Servant, the Controller of the Estates, Psamtek–pa–di–Sepa“. Collection of Estonian History Museum

Richter arrived in Egypt along with his fellow passenger, a preacher at the Swedish legation in Constantinople, Sven Fredrik Lidman, in mid-April 1815. “Their voyage took them past the antiquities of Karnak, Luxor, Kom Ombo and Aswan,” writes Sergei Stadnikov, an Egyptologist, in his Richter study. In August 1816 Richter’s travels were tragically ended. Richter, who had just turned 24, died of dysentery in Smyrna on 13 August. “He had travelled through Egypt, a part of Nubia, Palestine, Syria and Anatolia, and he planned to go on to Persia, where, according to an order by Emperor Alexander, an honourable position was waiting for him with the Russian Embassy,” reads the obituary published in Germany.

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The antiquities collected during the travels reached Richter’s father in Estonia, who gave them to the Museum of Tartu University (founded in April 1803). At the end of the 19^th century, the Egyptian collection of the museum included 124 items, the basic part of which belonged to the Richter legacy. “In respect to its volume and scientific importance, the Egyptological collection of the museum can be compared to the biggest collections in Russia,” said Stadnikov.

But in 1915 the valuable collection was taken to Russia to protect it from the war. Despite repeated requests from the Estonian government to have the collection returned, it is still held in the Art Museum of Voronezh Oblast, although it was agreed to return it to its homeland after the Tartu Peace Treaty was signed in 1920.

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Snake ring. Roman Egypt, 1st century AD. Gold, 6,74 g. Collection of Pekka Erelt

Pharmacist Johann Burchard

The Egyptomania of the time also affected Tallinn. We should be grateful to Johann Burchard (1776–1838), a Baltic German doctor and pharmacist, for the only available national collection of classical antiquities, held in the Estonian History Museum. In 1802 Burchard established a cabinet of antiquities, Mon Faible (My weakness) in Tallinn, which was later also open to the general public. In 1842 it was decided to open a museum – The Estonian Provincial Museum. It was this very museum to which, in 1870, the successors of Burchard donated his versatile collection of antiquities, which included items from Egypt, Greece and Rome.

Burchard did not confine himself to merely collecting antiquities; he also tried to learn more about the objects in his collection. In regard to the Egyptian antiquities, for example, he took counsel from the Russian Academy of Science and the University of Helsinki, but he also consulted Professor Gustav Seyffarth, an Egyptologist in Leipzig. Fortunately, in spite of wars and other dramatic historical events, the Burchard collection is still largely preserved.

My journey to ancient Egypt

The collection of classical antiquities is a global day-to-day activity, but in Estonia it seems exotic and remote. Therefore, it is no surprise that our interest in early cultures remains rather modest. This was the reason why I started to collect Egyptian antiquities, and in 2009 organized an exhibition entitled „Treasures of Lost Times“ at the Mikkel Museum, Tallinn. I hope that such exhibitions here in Estonia will help to excite a broader interest – especially among the younger generation – in the high cultures of the past. Today, the world is more open than it has ever been, and it would be a sin not to seize the opportunity.