Antiquities Museum adds Egyptian mummy mask to collection

The University of Queensland's Antiquities Museum has an important addition to its collection - a life-sized mask from an Egyptian mummy.

The mask was brought to the University by Mr James Ede, chair of the International Association of Dealers in Ancient Art and managing director of Charles Ede Limited, London.

Mr Ede, who travelled to Australia to value the Antiquities Museum's holdings, described the mask as being 'by far the most important Egyptian piece' in the collection.

'I have no doubt it is the best example in Queensland, possibly the best in a teaching museum in Australia,' he said.

'It is the most beautiful (mask) I've ever had, and I've had 10 or 15 over the past 20 years.

'It is so delicate and sculptural and the colouring, too, is unusual. This has a subtlety about it which I really adore.

'Very often these masks have been crushed, and often they have patches of re-painting. This one, as far as I can tell, has none, and that is very exciting.'

Mr Ede said the mask, dating from the Ptolemaic period c. 300 BC, was the innermost covering of the mummy, lying within the coffin and sarcophagus.

It featured the Egyptian vulture goddess Nekhbet carrying two Shen signs, which symbolise eternity.

'Queens quite often wore headdresses decorated with a vulture to protect royal personages,' Mr Ede said.

'That's not to say that it's a royal mummy, because it's certainly not. It would be much grander if it were.'

Mr Ede said the sex of the mummy had not been determined, since the mask had come from a French collection in the 1920s, with no records of where it came from in Egypt.

The funding for the mask, valued at A$40,000 but purchased at #11,500 (A$29,947) came from three sources - the Vice-Chancellor, the Friends of Antiquity and the Alumni Association.

Mr Bruce Gollan of the University of Queensland's Classics and Ancient History Department said the acquisition of the 'spectacular piece' marked another stage in the acquisitions policy of the museum.

'As well as collecting small objects suitable for teaching, we endeavour to purchase, every couple of years, important pieces which will appeal to the general public,'' he said.

The Antiquities Museum, located in the Michie Building at the University of Queensland, St Lucia, is open to the public Monday to Friday from 9.15am to 5pm.

For further information, contact Bruce Gollan (telephone 07-3365 2646, facsimile 07-3365 1399).