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Landmark Accord Struck between Fine Arts Museums and Israel Antiquities Authority for Collaboration between the Two Institutions
5/8/2006 Accord Marks First-Ever Such Agreement with Israel Antiquities Authority San Francisco, 8 May 2006—John E. Buchanan Jr., Director of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, announced today that he has signed a memorandum of understanding for direct collaboration with the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), for the next five years. This exclusive accord is the first-ever such agreement between the IAA and another cultural institution, and it is designed to continue and enhance international cultural cooperation and strengthen ties and understanding between the United States and Israel.
This formalized relationship is created in the spirit of mutually beneficial cooperation and will allow the two institutions to work together on a series of worthy and ambitious projects that would not be otherwise possible. The collaboration is based on the principle of equal participation from both institutions in joint activities and reciprocal exchanges.
The vision for this accord takes several forms and includes collaboration in exhibitions, publications, conservation, long-term loans, and educational programs, including the popular ongoing Helen Diller Family Annual Lecture Series on Recent Archaeological Discoveries in Israel.
Exhibitions
Built on a long history of loan exhibitions that have come to the Fine Arts Museums from the Israel Antiquities Authority, the parties to this accord intend to co-organize a series of exhibitions that will introduce to American audiences the importance of the collections held by the IAA. Thus far, the long-standing collaboration between the two institutions has included The Mystery of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Ancient Glass from the Holy Land, which were on view at the de Young museum in 1994 and 1998, respectively, as well as an active series of educational programs.
The exhibitions being developed under the formal accord will call attention to Israel’s rich archaeological heritage and the importance of the splendid objects, many of them national treasures, emanating from the Holy Land. These exhibitions will be of varying sizes and will be co-organized by the staffs of both institutions. In addition, both institutions will collaborate to produce exhibition catalogues and other educational and promotional materials. Among the exhibitions under development is Mosaics from the Holy Land, an exhibition primarily of mosaics supplemented by architectural elements and decorative objects that will include works that reveal narrative, artistry, evolution of style, and tales from the Bible lands as told by the mosaics. The planned centerpiece of the exhibition is a spectacular third-century Roman mosaic. Recently excavated at Lod, the work covers over 1600 square feet and measures 54 by 30 feet. Other examples of splendid mosaics that will be on display include Jewish, Roman, Samaritan, and Islamic mosaics, and, on a mosaic from the earliest known Christian church in the Holy Land, the first reference to Jesus. In addition, the glass mosaics that were in the Ancient Glass from the Holy Land exhibition of 1998 will make a return visit to San Francisco; and a table/chairback from Caesarea with gold glass tesserae will have its first viewing in this display. The exhibition will include a catalogue that the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco will edit and publish.
Long-Term Loans
During the next five years the Israel Antiquities Authority will lend significant objects of great interest and importance to the Fine Arts Museums to be installed on a rotating basis for the benefit of the visitors to these museums and to bring visibility to the IAA within America. Both institutions will agree upon these objects and their special installation needs. Educational programs and presentations will complement these loans, describe their place in history, and discuss their rarity and importance. Plans are under development for a landmark loan of a number of fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which will mark the first time that the scrolls will leave Israel for an extended period of time. This loan identifies the Fine Arts Museums as the only repository of the Dead Sea Scrolls outside of Israel. The Dead Sea Scrolls lent by the IAA will be part of the permanent collection display of antiquities at the Legion of Honor and will be rotated on a regular basis during the loan period, the duration of which may be extended. The installation of the scrolls will include numerous objects discovered at Qumran, near the site where the scrolls were found. Planning is also underway for a video and brochure that describe the conservation and research on the scrolls.
Programs and Educational Materials
The Israel Antiquities Authority will continue to organize the Helen Diller Family Annual Lecture Series on Recent Archaeological Discoveries in Israel, which takes place at the Fine Arts Museums. In addition, the IAA will bring archaeologists, curators, conservators, and other lecturers to the Fine Arts Museums for these and other programs. It will also allow the Museums to display virtual reality computer and other models of archaeological sites and interpretive and educational materials that have been created for the Israel Antiquities Authority.
About the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
The de Young museum and its sister museum, the Legion of Honor, together comprise the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the largest public arts institution in the city and one of the largest art museums in the United States.
The Legion of Honor is located in San Francisco's Lincoln Park (34th Avenue
and Clement Street). Its collections span four thousand years and include major holdings in Rodin sculpture; paintings by Rembrandt, Rubens, Watteau, de la Tour, Vigée Le Brun, Cézanne, Monet, and Picasso, among other Dutch, Italian, German, English, and French masters; a fifteenth-century Spanish ceiling; European decorative arts; tapestries; and over
70,000 prints and drawings.
Founded in 1895 in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, the de Young museum has been an integral part of the cultural fabric of the city and a cherished destination for millions of residents and visitors to the region for over one hundred years. In October 2005, the de Young reopened in a state-of-the-art new building and attracted more than 50,000 visitors during its opening weekend. Designed by the Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron and Fong & Chan Architects in San Francisco, the new de Young provides San Francisco with a landmark art museum to showcase the museum’s significant collections of American art from the seventeenth through the twentieth centuries, art from Central and South America, and from the Pacific and Africa, as well as an important and diverse collection of textiles.
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