I wrote yesterday about the removal of an ancient Egyptian mummy (and various other mummified bits and pieces) from public view at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow, Scotland. They are now being stored at Glasgow Museums Resource Centre, a facility brutally described by the Scottish Daily Express, as “a vast warehouse in unfashionable Nitshill.”
It has now emerged that a different Glasgow museum, the partly public-funded Hunterian, is now putting the mummy of the late Shep-En-Hor under wraps. Shep-En-Hor died around 600 b.c. Her mummy was discovered by Giovanni Belzoni (1778–1823), a.k.a. “The Great Belzoni,” a Venetian archaeologist. It has been a popular attraction for more than 200 years at the Hunterian but is now under wraps, covered by a fabric with the rather Vulcan name of Tyvek (actually a Dupont product).
Explaining the cover-up, the museum had this to say:
The Hunterian takes the view that the Lady Shep-En-Hor deserves privacy in death, while retaining its commitment to providing visitors, students and staff with an accessible introduction to the importance of ancient Egyptian culture for an understanding of the world’s history.
The taxpayers who contribute to the Hunterian’s funding would be better served by a museum that believed its role was to display the past, not to hide it.
Reacting to the news, the appropriately named (and distinguished) Cambridge historian Robert Tombs told the Daily Telegraph that the decision was not surprising:
It’s become the norm, due to the desire by museums to become campaigning organisations: they [think] they’re not there to educate the public, but to change the world.
There is plenty to back up Tombs’s claim, not least the pompous code of “ethics” (something I mentioned yesterday) that the seemingly unaccountable “museum community” has set up for itself, and which was given as a justification for “vandalizing” the Kelvingrove collection.
Tombs:
This respect for “ancient rights” means that the museums seem to give up on museums as a place of education.
It will make areas of the past invisible. Scholars can study them, but it will limit the ability of members of the public to do the same. As for children, seeing a mummy is the heart of the experience. If you’re going to get people interested in the past, you need to see these things.
Quite.
The Daily Telegraph:
A spokesman for the Hunterian said: “It is at the Hunterian’s discretion to make decisions about displays and narratives in its public venues.
The use of the word “narrative” tells you all that you need to know about the Hunterian and those who run it.
The Hunterian also displays a toe-bone formerly belonging to Robert the Bruce, but, according to the Scottish Daily Express, “It is understood the policy only relates to human remains from outside the UK.”
Two-tier, eh? Decolonization or something, I suppose.