Mansoor Amarna Collection

Etienne Drioton

Fromer Director General of The Antiquities Department, Egypt


Cabinet d'Egyptologie
College de France
Place Marcelin Berthelot
Paris ( 5eme )

Montgeron January 3,1959

Dear Mr. Mansoor,

Being a federal employee of the French government, member of the Artistic Council of the Museums of France and professor at the College de France, I am not permitted, as you know to give you an official evaluation of the Amarna sculptures that are in your possession. However I know them very well, inasmuch as I had the chance of studying them often in your father's house during the many years that I spent in Egypt as general director of the Service des Antiquites.

My personal opinion regarding these sculptures is made. I do not see any reason why I could not repeat it again and I even give you permission to make it known confidentially if this could be helpful to you : I think they are authentic sculptures.

The report of Mr. Lucas who was the most eminent specialist in matter of egyptology and also the one of Professor Robert R. Compton of Stanford University ( in contradistinction to the report of Mr. W.J. Young of the Boston Museum ), are positive about this subject. I may add that, concerning the artistic point of view, these sculptures come from a workshop related to, but not identical with, the one in which the colossuses of Karnak were executed. Their stylistic pattern, advanced in the same fashion as the Karnak Sculptures, is of such a full faultless execution that it cannot be, in my opinion, the work of a forger.

I remain, dear Mr. Mansoor,

Sincerely Yours,

Signed : Etienne Drioton

Translated by Robert E. Arnal
San Jose State College
San Jose, California
March 7,1959