Eduard Schaubert’s Collection of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiques at the National Museum in Warsaw and the University Museum in Wrocław

Abstract

The National Museum in Warsaw and the University Museum in Wroclaw have in their possession important works of Greek, Etruscan and Roman art that are remains of the extensive collection of the 19th century. Wroclaw architect and collector Eduard Schaubert, during his stay in Greece (1830 – 1850), had travelled throughout the country and gathered objects of ancient art. He also bought a few works during his travel to Italy. Thus, Schaubert collected this impressive set of 300 works of ancient art. After his death in 1861, his collection was donated to the Archaeological Museum in Breslau. Unfortunately, most of the antiques from Schaubert’s collection perished after the World War II and they are now considered missing. Only 29 objects remained, among which are masterpieces of Greek bronze work, Attic and south Italian vases and architectural fragments with traces of the original polychrome. The very high artistic quality of preserved objects shows Schaubert’s excellent knowledge of ancient Greek art. Luckily having survived the turmoil of the war, these artifacts have filled a major gap in Polish collections of ancient art which would have been poor otherwise. However, despite their great significance for our knowledge of ancient art, these objects have not yet been adequately elaborated