Exhibition in the Museum of Ancient Art 1 May - 1 December 2025
The exhibition In pursuit of the Danians. Illicit antiquities from the art dealer's warehouse is based on the research project Illicit Antiquities in the Museum, funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark and the Carlsberg Foundation. The exhibition explores the issues surrounding illegal excavations and the trade in antiquities through research into artefacts found in the art dealer Robin Symes’ warehouse in Geneva in 2014. These were confiscated and returned to Italy in 2016. In 2018, approximately 1,500 fragments of red-figure pottery from the warehouse were loaned to the Museum of Ancient Art for research purposes. They originate from illegal excavations in Apulia, particularly the northern area, which in antiquity was known as Daunia. The illegal trade in antiquities is a widespread problem in Italy, and it has significant consequences for our understanding of ancient cultures. Ancient Daunia in northern Apulia has been severely affected by extensive looting in the 1970s and 1980s. The exhibition tells the story of the art market’s role, and the many fragments illustrate how antiquities have been destroyed and subsequently attempted to be conserved and sold.
The large ceramic vessels are decorated in the red-figure technique with images of myths and funerary rituals. They most likely originate from graves, where they would have been an important part of the grave goods as part of burial rituals, and thus tell us about norms and values in Daunia during the period 350–300 BCE. Through studies of archaeologically documented graves, production, and decoration, the original significance of red-figure vases in Daunian society can be partially reconstructed.
Alongside the fragments, two film works by the British artist Maeve Brennan are presented:
An Excavation, produced in the Museum of Ancient Art and Archaeology in 2022, nominated for the New Vision Award, CpHDox 2023.
An Excavation (2022) documents Tsirogiannis and Norskov’s investigation into a series of vases from the Geneva Freeport crates. Made in the 4th century BC by Apulian artisans, these vases remained buried in tombs for 2500 years before they were clandestinely excavated from their now irrecoverable contexts. The objects’ journeys through the hands of looters, smugglers, restorers and dealers are counterpointed by the hand-painted stories that adorn them. Made for burials, the vases depict scenes from the underworld – forensic and mythological narratives start to intertwine.
SITICULOSA, produced in Apulia in 2024 with support from the New Carlsberg Foundation and the Danish Arts Foundation, nominated for the New Vision Award, CpHDOX 2025.
Sticulosa explores the journey that historical artefacts undergo over time, from everyday objects and works of art, to archaeological treasures of high histori cal and sometimes economic value. Set in Puglia in southern Italy, Brennan uncovers a circuit where both local inhabitants and passionate professionals are pitted against a criminal underworld. As we traverse a landscape full of caves and looted tombs, the film weaves together an interdisciplinary investigation of the ground, considering the relationship between archaeology, geology and ecology. It is a study of a territory, and the marks and wounds that it bears of a history of pillage, but also a portrait of the people that inhabit it.
More information on the artist can be found on her homepage: https://www.maevebrennan.co.uk
The exhibition is generously supported by the Augustinus Foundation, The Beckett Foundation, Dronning Margrethe and Prins Henriks Foundation and Aarhus Stiftstidendes' Foundation.
