Sleuthing leads the MFA to return an Egyptian coffin to Sweden

Some sleuthing at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston has lead to an agreement to return an ancient Egyptian child’s coffin to a museum in Sweden. The MFA and the Gustavianum, Uppsala University Museum worked together to confirm the object’s ownership history.

According to the MFA’s announcement, an investigation began after the Boston museum’s curatorial staff found an excavation photograph of the coffin in “Unseen Images: Archive Photographs in the Petrie Museum.” That 2008 publication stated the coffin was unearthed in 1920 during an excavation overseen by British Egyptologist Flinders Petrie. He sent it to the Uppsala museum (then called the Victoria Museum of Egyptian Antiquities at Uppsala University) in 1922.

This information did not match up with the MFA’s acquisition records.

The MFA purchased the coffin in 1985 from an agent claiming to represent the Swedish artist Eric Ståhl (1918-1999). The agent supplied the MFA with documentation saying Ståhl excavated the coffin in Amada, Egypt in 1937.

The clay coffin features the image of a boy named Paneferneb. A blue and yellow striped headdress adorns his face, which is painted red, like his crossed hands. Eyes, lotus flowers, jackals, the winged goddess Nut, the god Osiris and hieroglyphics adorn the coffin's exterior. The object dates to 1295-1186 B.C.

The discrepancy in the object's history led the MFA curators to contact the museum in Sweden. Their exchange of information resulted in a shared conclusion that the coffin in Boston was the same one that has been missing from Uppsala University’s collection since 1970.

The two museums found no evidence that Ståhl was present at the British School of Archaeology’s 1920 scientific excavation in Gurob, Egypt, and the authentications provided to the MFA decades ago were fakes.

“It has been wonderful working with our colleagues in Uppsala on this matter, and it is always gratifying to see a work of art return to its rightful owner,” Victoria Reed, the MFA’s senior curator of provenance said in the announcement. “In this case, we were fortunate to have an excavation photograph showing where and when the coffin was found, so that we could begin to correct the record.”

An image and inaccurate information about the object had been posted online, and in printed MFA catalogs, for years. Now the “Child’s Coffin” entry has been righted on the museum’s list of “Ownership Resolutions.”