17 December 2013

ANU's treasures going on display

| johnboy
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The Australian National University is getting word out there about their display of things they’ve been hiding in the archives:

Rare copperplate prints from Joseph Banks’s Florilegium have gone on display as part of the Treasures of the ANU Library exhibition, which celebrates the 50th anniversary of the R.G Menzies Library.

The Treasures exhibition brings together a selection of the Library’s most rare, unusual and precious items including artworks, manuscripts, printed ephemera, photographs, handwritten poems, and rare books.

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Holylgirl said :

It is nice to see the treasures available to the public. I remember when the Fine Arts faculty had the collection of artifacts on permanent low-security exhibition. Many valuable and ancient pieces were stolen in the early 1990s. Does anyone know if they were recovered?

I went to a dinner party in O’Connor in the 1980s where the host had a couple of ANU treasures openly displayed in the house. The treasure I remember best though wasn’t from ANU: there was a medieval tapestry, that he told us he had stolen from Sydney University, on his dining room wall, right next to the table and with splashes of gravy on it. Some of the people present at dinner were academics, some were students. The ANU was incredibly lax with its artworks – many of course bequeathed by trusting families to be kept for posterity. No-one reported this academic, so I wouldn’t be surprised if nothing has ever been found. And the ANU quite simply would have never noticed may missing items in the first place.

It is nice to see the treasures available to the public. I remember when the Fine Arts faculty had the collection of artifacts on permanent low-security exhibition. Many valuable and ancient pieces were stolen in the early 1990s. Does anyone know if they were recovered?

I saw the heading as Anus treasures…and it made me smirk!

It’s no wonder my wife says I need to grow up.

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