The Antikenmuseum Basel und Sammlung Ludwig (Basel Museum of Ancient Art and Ludwig Collection) is one of the many

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...

s in the city of

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...

, Switzerland and a heritage site of national significance. In 1961 the city of Basel decided to establish the museum to assemble the several antiquities in one place.

Buildings

It is located in several neighboring buildings, most prominently two designed by Melchior Berri in the early 19th century.Huber, Dorothee; Schmidt, Margot (1992), p.6–7 One was desgnied for Johann Jakob Bachofen-Merian, the father to

Johann Jakob Bachofen Johann Jakob Bachofen (22 December 1815 – 25 November 1887) was a Swiss antiquarian, jurist, philologist, anthropologist, and professor for Roman law at the University of Basel from 1841 to 1845. Bachofen is most often connected with h ...

and the other for the Swiss merchant Isaac Iselin-Roulet.Huber, Dorothee; Schmidt, Margot (1992), pp.34–36 During several years the buildings were renovated and the museum was inaugurated in 1966. Initially the museum included only one of the two Berri buildings, the one constructed for Roulet, the other one being used by the cities Civil Register. In 1986 the also the building built for the Bachofen family, became a part of the museum. During several years the buildings were renovated and the museum was inaugurated in 1966. Having opened with about 650 m² of exhibition room, until 1992 it has expanded to 3000 m^2.

Collection

The museum is devoted exclusively to the

art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

ancient civilization A civilization (or civilisation) is any complex society characterized by the development of a state, social stratification, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyond natural spoken language (namely, a writing system). Civ ...

s from the 4th millennium BC to the 7th century AD. The only one of its kind in Switzerland, the museum shows works of art from the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

region, predominantly from the period from 1000 BC to 300 AD. A central position is occupied by the collection of

Greek vase Ancient Greek pottery, due to its relative durability, comprises a large part of the archaeological record of ancient Greece, and since there is so much of it (over 100,000 painted vases are recorded in the Corpus vasorum antiquorum), it has exe ...

s and

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable ...

s and the Ancient Egyptian section. Further objects are from the Near East and

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...

External links

Antikenmuseum websiteBasel museums website

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Antikenmuseum Basel Und Sammlung Ludwig Museums in Basel Archaeological museums in Switzerland Cultural property of national significance in Basel-Stadt History museums in Switzerland Art museums established in 1961 Egyptological collections Museums of ancient Greece Museums of ancient Rome in Switzerland Museums of Ancient Near East in Europe

Buildings

Collection

See also

External links

Footnotes