Berlin restorers to bring together fragments of ancient Syrian statues 60 years after they split by bombing during the Second World War

Restorers rebuilt 30 monumental sculptures from the ancient Syrian settlement Tel-Khalaf, divided into 25 thousand pieces by bombing during the Second World War. This statue of basalt dating from the beginning of the first millennium BC. e. The hard work of restoration was begun in 2002, and now it is finally nearing completion.

Accommodation Tel Khalaf situated in the north-eastern Turkey near the border. Its origins, scientists refer to VI millennium BC. e. - late Neolithic era. But the most important findings in this area relate to the period of the Aramaic culture in the X century BC. e.

Tel Aviv-Khalaf discovered in the 1899 German diplomat, Baron Max von Oppenheim (Max von Oppenheim), spy out the land for the construction of the Baghdad Railway. He subsequently appealed to the Ottoman authorities for permission to conduct excavations in 1911-1913. The works had to be suspended, when the First World War. They only managed to finish in 1927.

The most significant finding were the ruins of the palace of Prince Kapara, which were found three five-statues of the gods, standing on the backs of animals, and the sitting figure of women (as suggested by Oppenheim - the goddess), had a height of two human growth. Part found at the excavation of inherited National Museum in Aleppo, and another part of Oppenheim moved to Berlin.

In 1930 the baron opened his own museum there, used for this purpose unoccupied room iron-casting factory in Charlottenburg. Among the visitors who were there before the war, was the famous writer Agatha Christie (Agatha Christie), together with her husband, archaeologist Max Mellovanom (Max Mallowan). Later, she remembered that he himself Oppenheim led them to the museum for about five hours, talking enthusiastically about all the exhibits. He interrupted his story came to a sitting woman from Tel-Khalaf: «" Oh, my beautiful Venus "- he exclaimed softly and lovingly stroked figure».

World War II brought with it the tragic destruction. 22-24 November 1943 a British aircraft bombed the museum. Outbreak of fire, and all the wood and limestone artifacts from Tel Khalaf simply burned. A basalt pieces split into parts due to a sharp drop in temperature when the fire began to extinguish with water.

Despite the difficulties with transportation during wartime, the Director of the Berlin Museum of Art of Prednej Asia has been able to negotiate on behalf of Oppenheim on packaging fragments in boxes, and in August 1944 on nine truckloads of wreckage were taken to the basement Pergamskogo museum. After the war, this museum was in East Berlin, got in the Soviet sector of occupation, and burned a museum in Charlottenburg, where fragments of the sculptures were removed, remained in West Berlin. Of course, in the postwar years, the restoration was not possible for financial reasons - the country was devastated. But even after improving the economic situation of the owners of what remains of the Syrian sculptures, nothing to do: family lived Oppenheim in Cologne, West Germany, and the debris were in the eastern German museum.

Ability to restore the statue of the Tel-Khalaf was only after the unification of East Germany and West Germany in 1990. Archaeologists recalled that in 1944 Oppenheim wrote: «It would be nice, if all the fragments, which were broken sculptures can be sent to the State Museums of Berlin and there to collect them. But it would be terribly difficult task, given the fact that the collection shattered. Most of all, I certainly would like to save the goddess on the throne ». Oppenheim died in 1946, and his dream fulfilled, only 63 years later.

Work on the reconstruction was started in 2002. In two huge rooms of the former test shops in the area Fridrihshagen on the eastern outskirts of Berlin eighty cubic meters of rubble were placed on wooden slabs dvuhstah. Originally, that the fragments will be scanned by computer, which then can combine them together. But in practice this has proved not so effective. «People have better computers», - explained the project leader Dr. Martin Lutz (Lutz Martin).

In the reconstruction of the statues, the first thing selected exterior portions with threads and dirt on the surface, then the internal elements. This was similar to the assembly of complex three-dimensional pazzla. Fortunately, experts have helped a well-preserved photographs taken before the war. As a result, it was used 95 percent of the available material, and what is left, more like a fine powder or sand.

Specialists joined fragments between them using epoxy glue. Metal frame and the pins are not used in the reconstruction. Cracks formed in faults, the restorers chose not to disguise. And in places where there are no large fragments (some of them broke even in ancient times), by insertion of a mixture of basalt hammer, sand and glue, lighter in tone than the original stone. On the surface it was also decided that the remains of nearly molten glass and bitumen from the roof of the museum in Charlottenburg, since they have already become part of the history of sculpture. Work on conservation is planned for completion in October this year.

The legal ownership of the sculpture belongs to Cologne Fund «Oppenheim», which has provided artifacts for a long time the Berlin Museum. Work on conservation funded family Oppenheim and government funds German Research.

In July - November 2010 restored the sculpture will be on view at the Tel-Khalaf art exhibition at the Museum of Prednej Asia. And after the final completion of the reconstruction Pergamskogo museum pieces three gods, standing on the backs of animals, it is set at the entrance to the gallery art of Prednej Asia. However, this did not happen before 2028.

material produced Catherine Onuchin, AI

Sources: theartnewspaper.com , artinvestment.ru