Egyptian wall relief fragment from the tomb of Haunefer
Behind the scenes secrets revealed by the modern history and interpretation of an ancient object
MúzeumCafé 40.
In autumn 2013 the Egyptian Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts acquired an art object of outstanding scientific significance: an Old Kingdom wall fragment made of limestone. So far it has been the most significant purchase of an art object in the history of the collection, which was founded in 1934. The European history of the object can be traced back to the 1970s when a Swiss collector bought it from a French gallery. The Museum of Fine Arts purchased it from Rupert Wace Ancient Art, London. The relief was noted by Director General László Baán at the Maast-richt Art Fair. It arrived in Budapest in autumn 2013, then some two months later it was presented to visitors as an outstanding artefact of the revam-ped permanent exhibition of the Egyptian Collection, which ope-ned last December. The tomb wall relief is displayed in the exhibition hall presenting the world of the dead. When the relief was acquired it was believed it could have been a building component from an Old Kingdom Sixth Dynasty elite tomb, which presumably decorated an architrave above the entrance. The inscription also revealed that the owner of the relief, and thus the tomb, was a lector priest whose name was preserved as Hau in the inscription. The Egyptologists of the collection had already begun scientific examination of the artefact before its arrival in Hungary. Although its provenance was unknown, it was possible to date it on the basis of its style and the inscription on it, and it was presumed to have probably come from Sakkara. The collection’s Egyptologist Péter Gaboda discovered the owner of the tomb.