The Egyptian Collection [antikvár]

IntroductionSince tlie establisiiment of tiie Egyptian Collection in 1934, the present Exhibition is the third in the line of those which offer the visitors of the museum a comprehensive guide to the knowledge of the Ancient Culture of the Nile valley The date the Collection was established is not the time the works of art were gathered. It had started more than a century ago, thanks to those Hungarians whose numbers were constantly increasing as they flocked the land of the Pyramids, which raised the interest of more and more Europeans after the expedition of Napoleon. After 1822 when ChampoIIion solved the secret of the hieroglyphs scientists, tourists, adventurers headed off to Egypt to explore the monuments of the age of the Pharaohs. This era is the hallmark of the establishment and fast growth of the Egyptian Collections in the great European museums. Those works of art which were brought to Hungary were private properties and were offered to the National Museum which was established in 1802. The first registered list (Cimeliotheca Musei Nationalis Hungarici) of the National Museum mentions several Egyptian objects.After the defeat of the Hungarian War of Independence in 1848/49, many of those who looked for refuge in the Turkish Empire had the opportunity to go to Egypt. Amiong them was the adventurous György Sipos. One of our precious objects, the statue of the hereditary prince Shoshenq, which was brought to Hungary in 1862, is linked to his name. After the Compromise of 1867, artists, scientists, countrymen seeking a medical cure and inquiring visitors went to explore Egypt from the territory of the Monarchy. Later, visitors from the country, which was getting ready for the celebration of the Millennium (1896), went to Egypt to buy works of art and to donate them to the museums in order to contribute to the cultural increase of the nation. By this time, besides the National Museum, the Museum of Arts and Crafts and the Museum of Ethnography also had a remarkable Egyptian collection. After several years, the latter also gave home to a part of the fiinerary furniture discovered in 1907 by the first Hungarian archaeological expedition in Egypt.Ede Mahler, founder of the Egyptological researches in Hungary, had already believed in 1902 that the time had come to establish a National Egyptian Collection, which would unite all the Egyptian antiquities held in different museums. The realisation of his plan was only accomplished decades later, in 1934. After several years of preparatory work achieved by two of his talented disciples, Aladár Dobrovits and Vilmos Wessetzky, the first Exhibition was opened in 1939 where the most beautiful pieces of the Collection were put on permanent display.