Children’s sarcophagus returned to Gustavianum – Uppsala University

The Child Sarcophagus was originally found in Egypt in 1920 during an excavation led by British Egyptologist Flinders Petrie. The find was documented with a photograph taken on the spot. The sarcophagus was then sent to Uppsala as part of the distribution of finds – a system used at the time to distribute ownership of archaeological finds.

In the Gustavianum’s archives there are documents proving that the sarcophagus was acquired by the Victoria Museum at Uppsala University in 1922. The object is also documented in the museum’s catalog from the 1950s. What happened after that is unclear.

Sold with forged documents

In 1985, the same sarcophagus was purchased by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. It was sold by an agent who claimed to represent the Swedish artist Eric Ståhl (1918–1999). Today it is known that the documents that came with the purchase were forged. For example, there was a letter purportedly written by Eric Ståhl, which describes how he himself unearthed the sarcophagus in Egypt in 1937. For several years, the Museum of Fine Arts presented the object online and in printed catalogs with this origin story.

However, archivists in Boston began to suspect that something was amiss. For example, they discovered that the letter accompanying the purchase did not match the photograph from the excavation. They therefore contacted the Gustavianum and both museums came to the same conclusion: the sarcophagus had been taken from Uppsala University’s collection without permission and should be returned.

– It is very gratifying that this return has now come about. The sarcophagus complements our Egyptian collections in an excellent way and will now be available for research. The sarcophagus needs some revision and it will take some time before it can be shown to the public, says Mikael Ahlund, museum director at the Gustavianum, which is Uppsala University’s museum.

Sandra Gunnarsson