I visited the Calouste Gulbenkian museum (Lisbon, Portugal) over the winter break. While the man wasn't a coin collector by any means, there were a few dozen of ancient coins (mostly silver and gold if I'm not mistaken). Here are some of my favorites. The pictures are bad because I had a point and shoot and there was a thick glass in front of it. Calouste Gulbenkian in Wikipedia: By the end of his life he had become one of the world's wealthiest individuals and his art acquisitions considered one of the greatest private collections. At the time of his death in 1955, Gulbenkian's worth was estimated at between US$280 million and US$840 million. After undisclosed sums willed in trust to his descendants, the remainder of his fortune and art collection were willed to the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian), with US$300,000–400,000 to be reserved to restore the Echmiadzin Cathedral in Echmiadzin, Armenia, when relations with the Soviet Union permitted. The Foundation was to act for charitable, educational, artistic, and scientific purposes, and the named trustees were his long-time friend Baron Radcliffe of Werneth, Lisbon attorney José de Azeredo Perdigão, and his son-in-law Kevork Loris Essayan. The Foundation established the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum (Museu Calouste Gulbenkian) in Lisbon to display his art collection.
Interesting; the Bill Gates of 50 years ago. I have to say that it is not a flattering representation of the lady on the coin in your first picture. (I didn't say ugly!)
I don't know anything about ancients, but I was impressed by their quality. Like I said though, there were only a few dozen coins on display. He was an eclectic collector. The museum has a lot of everything, but especially paintings, furniture, porcelains (and the like), and tapestry.
Luis, thanks for sharing the info and the pics of these coins from your visit to the museum. I also try to get pics of interesting coins in museums too when possible. Some museum prohibit photography, especially in European museums or when the collection is delicate or privately owned but on public view. These Roman Hadrian coins are from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. Not sure if these are on permanent view, the pics are from summer 2008. I went to do some research about Hadrian prior to a trip to Rome, specifically with a side trip to the town of Tivoli to see Villa Adriana, where you can wander around the palace ruins.
Those look nice. No side trips for me when I went to Rome, unfortunately I stopped buying the "delicate" argument a while ago. They do it purely for security reasons or image rights reasons.
Yes, that is true, however works of art on paper and fiber arts are sensitive to camera flash, esp of famous works that get thousands of flashes a day from visitors. But you are correct, usually it is security and control of image rights.
Gulbenkian actually has a superb and extensive collection of very high quality ancient coins. The catalog can even be used as a basic reference for Greek coins! Unfortunately, as with most museums, they don't display too many - the best stuff is usually in the back. Since we're posting coins from museums, here's a massive medallion of Antoninus Pius:
That doesn't surprise me, since it's true for most museums or collections. The point remains though, that he was an eclectic collector and coins weren't his main focus. The common aspect of all the areas in which he collected is the superb quality of the items.
