In a project that has been ongoing for several years and which is held between various scientific institutions, the thousands of objects in the Troy Collection (which spans some 9700 inventory numbers) are currently undergoing scientific analysis. The ‘Collection of Trojan Antiquities’ was presented as gift from the excavator Heinrich Schliemann to the Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte in the 1880s. In an initial publication, released in 2008, large parts of the collection were presented in great detail.

Almost all precious-metal objects in Schliemann’s collection were confiscated by the Soviet Union in 1945 as looted art. They are presently on show at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow. The groundwork is being laid for a collaborative project with Moscow for the application of new analytical methodologies on the artefacts. Such studies have already been made on the few remaining gold and silver objects in Berlin, coordinated by our chief conservator Hermann Born.

Scientific Management: Museum für Vor und Frühgeschichte
Partner: Prof. Dr. Dieter Hertel, Universität Köln, und Prof. Dr. Ernst Pernicka, Universität Tübingen
Contact person: Dr. Bernhard Heeb, research associate, Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte
Duration: 2008 (The second volume in the series is planned for 2014)