Digital Editions
Newsletters
Subscribe
Digital Editions
Newsletters
Art market
Museums & heritage
Exhibitions
Books
Podcasts
Columns
Technology
Adventures with Van Gogh
Art market
Museums & heritage
Exhibitions
Books
Podcasts
Columns
Technology
Adventures with Van Gogh
Exhibitions
news

British Museum’s ivory icons denied US entry for loan show

The US Fish and Wildlife Service blocked the importation of the Byzantine objects before they ever left the UK

Victoria Stapley-Brown
30 June 2015
Share

The US Fish and Wildlife Service blocked the importation of six Byzantine ivory pieces due to come to the US on a loan from the British Museum for the travelling exhibition Saints and Dragons: Icons from Byzantium to Russia. The show, currently on view at the Museum of Russian Icons in Clinton, Massachusetts and due to travel to the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia, this autumn, centres on icons that are normally hidden away in storage at the London museum.

Laura Garrity-Arquitt, the registrar at the Museum of Russian Icons, which organised the show, says that despite the age of the religious works (dating from the 9th through the 12th century) any animal remains entering the US must be cleared through the federal Fish and Wildlife Service. The head of the organisation denied permission, though “they didn’t really give a concrete reason why they wouldn’t allow them”, Garrity-Arquitt says, although she did add that it was likely due to the “whole issue with elephant poaching”.

The works never left the British Museum, it turns out. In a statement, a representative for the London institution told The Art Newspaper that “a potential risk to the shipment of six British Museum objects was identified and it was agreed to remove the works in consultation with the borrower”. The exhibition has been in the works since 2013, but the Massachusetts museum did not find out about the importation problem until March of this year, just two months before the show opened.

The ivory pieces, whose subjects include the Nativity, the Archangel Michael and Saint John the Baptist, were meant to demonstrate the high value Byzantine culture placed on luxury items. The Museum of Russian Icons has borrowed an ivory piece from the Worcester Art Museum in Worcester, Massachusetts instead.

Saints and Dragons: Icons from Byzantium to Russia is at the Museum of Russian Icons until 12 September and travel to the Chrysler Museum of Art, 1 October-10 January 2016.

ExhibitionsLoansPreservation
Share
Subscribe to The Art Newspaper’s digital newsletter for your daily digest of essential news, views and analysis from the international art world delivered directly to your inbox.
Newsletter sign-up
Information
About
Contact
Cookie policy
Data protection
Privacy policy
Frequently Asked Questions
Subscription T&Cs
Terms and conditions
Advertise
Sister Papers
Sponsorship policy
Follow us
Instagram
Bluesky
LinkedIn
Facebook
TikTok
YouTube
© The Art Newspaper

Related content

News
9 March 2016

Secret flight path of the Parthenon statue

Hermitage director reveals "circuitous" route that marble sculpture took from London to St Petersburg to avoid Greek seizure

Sophia Kishkovsky
Loansnews
1 March 2022

What will happen to Russia's treasures on loan in London and Paris?

Imperial Fabergé eggs and Impressionist masterpieces are some of the works currently in shows in Europe

Gareth Harris
News
11 October 2015

Art is a weapon as Russia and US fight cultural war

Relations worse than ever after federal US judge imposes $43.7m fine over Jewish Orthodox library

Sophia Kishkovsky