In 2019 the Allard Pierson together with several other museums and research institutes started the project Bissing Link with the aim of bringing together different perspectives on the German Egyptologist and collector Friedrich Wilhelm Freiherr von Bissing and his collection of ancient Egyptian objects.
The project led to the beginning of an inventory of the von Bissing collection as it once was in the Museum Carnegielaan (‘Museum Scheurleer’) in The Hague between 1922 and 1934 with most objects presently in European museums. It also led to an inventory and analysis of correspondence from and about von Bissing in The Netherlands. These help in a better understanding of the Egyptological and political context in which von Bissing operated and increasingly provide contextualisation for the biography of his large collection of ancient Egyptian objects.
On 27 January as the project comes to an end the symposium Bissing Links will take place. Papers by specialists and researchers present a diversity of topics related to von Bissing and his collection. Different perspectives on von Bissing and his collection are involved and are important in discussions that will help us in further charting the network of scholars, collectors, museums and politicians of which he was a part.