The Bonham Amphora at the Blanton Museum of Art, Austin TX: Sketching the Biography of a Contested Object in a University Collection (20 min)

Presenters

Nassos Papalexandrou, University of Texas, Austin

Abstract

This paper delineates the biography of an Attic late-geometric-neck amphora, now in the collections of the Blanton Museum, University of Texas at Austin. Various archival resources in Greece and the United States point to the artifact’s convoluted history. The amphora used to belong to the collections of duplicates at the National Archaeological Museum, Athens. However, its provenience remains unknown. In 1949 it was legally exported to the United States as a token of gratitude for Sam Rayburn (D), Speaker of the House, who had played an active role in promoting a package of financial aid and military assistance to Greece under the provisions of the Truman Doctrine. The amphora ended up in Rayburn’s museum and library at Bonham, TX, but in recent years its ownership has been disputed by the US Capitol in Washington, DC on the grounds that it was presented to Sam Rayburn in his official role as Speaker of the House and not as a personal gift. In its present location in Austin, the amphora holds at least one more secret, and this has to do with its original content when it traveled from Greece to the United States in 1949. The amphora raises many issues: for example, Where does it really belong? And How is its current status in a university museum in Texas justified? This paper revisits its biography vis-à-vis its didactic role in a university museum, largely in the company of antiquities of problematic provenience and/or provenance.