Etruscans Now
Museum and institutional initiatives
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Dominique Briquel - Université de Paris-Sorbonne and
Thuiller, J.-P. - École Normale Supérieure, Paris
Etruscan Inscriptions in French Public Collections
Due to the interest in Etruscans since the Renaissance, it may be expected that artefacts bearing Etruscan inscriptions can be found in many European museums, where they were brought either by travellers coming back from Italy, or through antiquarian trade. An inquiry made in French public collections has untill now revealed 30 Etruscan inscriptions in 22 French towns outside Paris, only three of them being known in the previous literature; 25 of them were inscribed on cinerary urns of late Chiusian production, which were easily available but, because of their low artistic value, have been generally neglected by scholars. But most of these documents (20 Chiusian urns and two other objects) belonged to the Campana collection and their presence in French provincial towns can be explained by the political choice made during the reign of emperor Napoleon III to dispatch parts of the Campana collection throughout the country instead of keeping all its objects in Paris.