The Past is Present: The Kempner Collection of Classical Antiquities at the Nasher Museum

In 2006, the collection of 224 antiquities assembled by Walter Kempner, M.D. was donated to the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University by Barbara Newborg, M.D. Ranging from the 3rd millennium to the 3rd century B.C.E., the collection includes Mediterranean antiquities such as Cycladic marble artifacts; Greek ceramics attributed to significant Athenian painters, including the Kleophrades Painter, the Athenian Painter, and the Matsch Painter; and carved amber likely from an Etruscan workshop. In The Past Is Present, scholars and Duke University students present the collection, including many objects that have never been published before, and discuss its significance for art history, classics, museum studies, and archaeology. The introductory essay by Kimerly Rorschach, Director of the Nasher Museum, discusses the gift in the context of current issues surrounding the acquisition of antiquities and the aims of university museums.

Contributors
Carla Antonaccio
Elizabeth Baltes
Larissa Bonfante
Kaila Davis
Sheila Dillon
Robert Dudley
Susan Foster
Kiki Fox
Alex Jorn
Christina Kaplanis
Mary King
Anna Kivlan
Lindsay Levine
Michael Ma
Jennifer Morris
Jenifer Neils
Daven Reagan
Kimerly Rorschach
Brendan Saslow
Tyler Jo Smith
Andrew Tharler

Publication of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University

Carla M. Antonaccio is Professor of Archaeology and Classical Studies at Duke University. Co-Director of excavations at the Sicilian site of Morgantina, she is the author of An Archaeology of Ancestors.

Sheila Dillon is Associate Professor of Art, Art History and Visual Studies at Duke University. She is the author of The Female Portrait Statue in the Greek World and Ancient Greek Portrait Sculpture: Contexts, Subjects, and Styles.