Crossroads Roundup: Klimt and Delacroix Paintings Discovered, Tomb of an Unknown Pharaoh, and More
The latest news in art, archaeology, culture, and more.
Not one, but two tombs of Egyptian pharaohs discovered:
2025 has already proven to be landmark year in Egyptology. First, in February, a team of British and Egyptian archaeologists found the tomb of Thutmose II, which was the only royal tomb of the 18th dynasty that had yet to be discovered. (Thutmose was the half-brother and husband of Queen Hatshepsut, one of Egypt’s most powerful female rulers.) It was also the first time that a British research team discovered a pharaoh’s tomb since Tutankhamun.
The tomb is located in the Western Valleys of the Theban Necropolis near the city of Luxor. The mummy of Thutmose II was actually found in 1881 in what is now called the Royal Cache, or the Deir el-Bahari cache—a separate site in which many royal mummies were interred during the 21st dynasty, as their original tombs underwent restorations. (Even in ancient Egypt, the looting of tombs was a problem!)
It is a momentous discovery. As field director Piers Litherland told the BBC:
Part of the ceiling was still intact: a blue-painted ceiling with yellow stars on it. And blue-painted ceilings with yellow stars are only found in kings’ tombs… The emotion of getting into these things is just one of extraordinary bewilderment because when you come across something you’re not expecting to find, it’s emotionally extremely turbulent...
And then, just a few weeks later, another major discovery was announced.
A team of Egyptian and American archeologists found a pharaoh’s tomb in the Mount Anubis necropolis in Abydos. There’s only one problem—no one knows which pharaoh was laid to rest there.
The tomb likely dates from the Middle Kingdom’s Second Intermediate Period (approximately 1630 to 1540 B.C.), during which different dynasties ruled Upper and Lower Egypt. Very little is known about the Abydos dynasty, who ruled Upper Egypt—where this particular tomb is located.
The excavation was led by Josef Wegner of the University of Pennsylvania. Wegner told Live Science,
The king’s name was originally recorded in painted scenes on plastered brickwork that decorated the underground entrance to the limestone burial chamber. However, the hieroglyphic texts were damaged by ancient tomb robbers and not enough survives to read the king’s name.
Tomb robbers left little behind—not even the mummy remains.
By the way, if you’re interested in the subject of antiquities theft (which remains an issue around the world today, especially in conflict zones), this mini-series by the Freakonomics podcast is a wonderful resource.
Paintings by Gustav Klimt and Eugène Delacroix found in private collections:
In 2021, a collector brought the portrait below into W&K (Wienerroither & Kohlbacher Gallery of Vienna and New York), claiming that it was a work by Gustav Klimt. Peeking out from its frame was the stamp of Klimt’s estate.
W&K turned to Klimt scholar Alfred Weidinger, who, as it turns out, had been looking for this specific portrait for years. The painting is a portrait of William Nii Nortey Dowuona, an Osu prince from present-day Ghana. Prince William had traveled to Vienna that year for an exhibition that purported to be about the Ashanti people, but the exhibitions’ organizers invited the wrong tribe, and 120 members of the Osu tribe came instead. (At this time, Ghana was under British colonial rule.)
Both Klimt and his artist friend Franz Matsch painted the prince, but it seems that Prince William chose to keep Matsch’s rendition, as Klimt’s painting remained in Vienna. The portrait is now on view at TEFAF Maastricht; it is expected to sell for €15 million.
In another exciting story from the art world: a study of lions by the French Romantic artist Eugène Delacroix was discovered in a family’s living room. French art dealer Malo de Lussac was surveying the items in a property in Touraine when he came across the painting below. The family has owned the painting since the mid-19th century.
In 1832, Delacroix traveled to French-colonized Algeria as part of a diplomatic envoy. Over a period of six months, he painted many studies of lions and other wildlife, which would inform his Lion Hunt series. (Delacroix never actually saw a lion hunt in person.)
Study of Reclining Lions heads to auction today, where it is expected to fetch about $330,000.
“Running Late in Brown Bear Country”
In every Roundup, I highlight the work of another Substack writer that caught my attention. I really enjoyed a recent essay in Acacia Johnson’s Depth of Field, in which she shares her adventures as a professional photographer and contributor to National Geographic, the New York Times, and more.
Her essay, “Running Late in Brown Bear Country,” gives readers a window into the world of wildlife photography, as Johnson brings us along on a thirteen-day trip on the coast of Alaska’s Katmai National Park.
I loved reading Johnson’s insights on storytelling through photography, and finding magic in the unexpected while on assignment:
It occurred to me that what compelled people to watch bears, deep down, might be some primal understanding of what the bears represented. The further south we sailed in Katmai, the landscape brimmed with aliveness, the rivers quivering with fish. Every level of the ecosystem supported a predator at the top of the food chain, down to the water and the soil. That aliveness, that sense of health of the land, became the context that I wanted to shine through my bear pictures.
If you’d like to see more of Johnson’s stunning photographs, be sure to check out Depth of Field here.
A few other stories…
Ongoing excavations at Pompeii Archaeological Park have once again resulted in the discovery of frescoes. Above is a detail from a frieze showcasing bacchanalian rituals, with devotees of the god of wine depicted as dancers and hunters. The frieze is believed to date from the 1st century B.C.
In repatriation news, the Art Institute of Chicago is returning the 12th-century sculpture, Buddha Sheltered by the Serpent King Muchalinda, to Nepal. They are doing so voluntarily after learning that the statue had been stolen from the Guita Bahi monastery in the Kathmandu Valley.
And if you’re interested in mosaics: archaeologists have discovered mosaics in the ancient Greek cities of Teos and Pergamon, both in present-day Turkey.
And finally, the art of screenprinting:
I loved this video from the Victoria & Albert Museum’s YouTube channel, in which the V&A brings us into the studio of British artist Adam Bridgland. I found the process of screenprinting to be fascinating.
What an interesting coincidence! I'm currently reading "Gustav Klimt - The Biography" by Alfred Weidinger and Mona Horncastle. I have just come to the passage that deals with the portrait of William R. Dowoonah. It says: "... where it is today, we do not know."
Well, I'd say that mystery is solved!
Wait wait wait, the family owned the Delacroix painting since the mid-19th century.....and now it's being auctioned??? Wtf