Glyptothek

Scope

Greek and Roman sculpture.

History of the collection

Built for Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria to house his collection and opened in 1830 — one of the first buildings anywhere designed as a public museum for a specific holding.

The Aegina pediment sculptures, acquired in 1813, were restored by Bertel Thorvaldsen in the early nineteenth century. Those restorations were removed in the 1960s, so the figures now stand as fragments.

Collection notes

The Thorvaldsen episode is the standard teaching case for changing restoration ethics: nineteenth-century practice completed a damaged statue, twentieth-century practice removed the completion. Both were confident, and both altered the object.