The British Museum has no money to exhibit them, and lends important Assyrian works to the Getty for three years

The British Museum is running out of money to display some pieces from its very important Assyrian collection: thus, the London museum has decided to loan a core of the collection to the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles for a full three years. Breaking the news is The Art Newspaper, according to which the British does not have enough money to create an adequate space to show the entire extraordinary collection (consisting of more than 300 pieces, of which 240 are on display and 80 are instead kept in storage).

Thus, twelve plaster panels will make their way to the United States, including the Banquet Scene from the Palace of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh, dating from around 645 B.C. and universally considered the finest sculpted relief produced by Assyrian art. The works, from Nimrud, Nineveh and Khorsabad, have not been exhibited since 2006, following the closure of the spaces in which they were previously housed (with the exception of just the Banquet Scene, which was displayed at an exhibition last winter). These reliefs are all the more valuable considering the work of destruction carried out by Isis terrorists during the 2014-2017 Iraqi civil war.

As of Oct. 2, therefore, the reliefs from the British will go into the Assyria: Palace Art of Ancient Iraq exhibition that will take place in Los Angeles. “We want to share some pieces from the collection through national and international loans,” a spokeswoman for the British told The Art Newspaper. Moreover, the rearrangement of the entire Assyrian collection “is part of the museum’s development project,” but it is still waiting to be completed. Not least because substantial resources will be needed to set up the new spaces, and the whole thing will take years to complete: hence the decision to lend the works to the Getty.

Pictured: Assyrian Art, Banquet Scene (c. 645-635 BC; plaster, 58.42 x 139.7 x 15.24 cm; London, British Museum)

The British Museum has no money to exhibit them, and lends important Assyrian works to the Getty for three years

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