From Athens to Wrocław. On Eduard Schaubert (1804–1860) and His Collection of Antiquities

Abstract

The paper summarizes the author’s research, begun in 2010, into the life of Eduard Schaubert (1804–60) and the history of his collection of antiquities, including recently identified artefacts now in the collection of the National Museum in Warsaw. Schaubert was a German architect who went down in history as the author of a new urban plan of Athens. After twenty years in Greece, he returned to his native Wrocław with a private collection that after his death was transferred to the Royal Museum of Art and Antiquities (Königliches Museum für Kunst und Altertümer), in 1862 renamed as the Archaeological Museum at the Royal University of Wrocław (Archäologisches Museum an der Königlichen Universität Breslau). The collection included ancient bronzes, pottery, terracotta, architectural elements, sculpture as well as engraved gems and coins. After the Second World War, the collection was dispersed, but many of the items originally belonging to it have been identified in the collections of the University of Wrocław and the National Museum in Warsaw.