The The Avatars of the Reliefs on the Doors of Shalmaneser III (858-824 BC) from Imgur-Enlil (Present-Day Balawat, Iraq)

Abstract

The bronze reliefs from the gates of Shalmaneser III (858-824 BC) from Imgur-Enlil (present-day Balawat, Iraq) reached the British Museum in London in 1878, the same year they were found. From that moment on, they passed through a complex restoration process, led by Robert Cooper Walpole Ready (1811-1903). In this paper we look at the decisions made by trustees, curators, and various members of the Ready family, all of whom were linked to the British Museum, about the restoration and publication of the Balawat bronzes, as well as the commercialization of their reproductions between 1878 and 1915. All these decisions conditioned both the study and the dissemination of the bronzes, also internationally. As an example, we take here as a case study the Museo de Reproducciones Artísticas de Madrid, which in the 1880s was able to acquire photographs, but not plaster casts, of the bronzes.