The National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, the Netherlands, is a prestigious museum with a long history. Commemorating its 200th anniversary in 2018, the museum is currently showing the exhibition “Nineveh” open from Oct 20, 2017 to March 25, 2018. Two representatives from Tokyo University of the Arts (Tokyo Geidai) were invited to attend the opening reception that took place on October 19, 2017.

Nineveh was the capital city of ancient Assyria, which existed in what is now in modern-day Iraq, and was the biggest city of that time. Major cultural properties from the ancient city were removed by research teams from Europe and the United States in the early 20th century, and those left in the original locations have been destroyed by the jihadist group Islamic State (IS), making the ruins that currently exist in Iraq almost empty. The exhibition Nineveh has been attracting the world’s attention as it is the first opportunity for such cultural properties that had dispersed all over the world to come together.

The exhibits in Nineveh include two reliefs reproduced as “clone cultural properties” by Tokyo Geidai in collaboration with the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft). The collaboration of the two universities is based on the partnership agreement between Tokyo Geidai and the Netherlands Institute for Conservation, Art and Science (NICAS), which was concluded on February 1, 2015, with the aim of combining technology and the arts. The reliefs are the outcomes of the second collaborative project, after the first project to reproduce an enlarged painting of the Tower of Babel, which was exhibited at “Collection of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen Bruegel’s “The Tower of Babel” and Great 16th Century Masters”, an exhibition organized by The Asahi Shimbun.

The relief reproduced by Tokyo Geidai collaborating with TU Delft

At the opening reception, following a video message from Irina Bokova, the Director-General of UNESCO, Iraqi Minister of Culture, Tourism and Antiquities Fryad Rawanduzi, and Dutch Minister of Education, Culture and Science Jet Bussemaker greeted the guests. During the private viewing that followed, a number of VIPs including the two ministers appreciated our “cloned reliefs”.

Countdown for the opening reception

An old Assyrian palace reproduced using projection mapping

UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova gave a speech

This exhibition displays artworks that are categorized into three concepts. The first category includes original cultural properties that were excavated in Nineveh. The second category includes first-rate cultural assets and art works, which were produced at later times, with inspiration from Nineveh. They were collected from the world’s renowned museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the British Museum in London, the Louvre in Paris, and the Vatican Museums in the Vatican City. The third category includes damaged or destroyed cultural properties that were reproduced using a variety of techniques, under the concept of reconstruction. They were displayed together with their originals.

A destroyed relief reproduced using projection mapping

The cultural properties reproduced by Tokyo Geidai were so excellent that they gave added value to replicas made with a 3D printer, and many viewers believed them to be the original. At the presentation sessions by the exhibitors that took place at 8pm and 9pm, the Tokyo Geidai team introduced their works, which drew attention of guests from different museums. Their sessions attracted a large audience, causing an overflow of people from the room.

Project Researcher Yukino Oishi from the Tokyo Geidai team and Mr. Naphur van Apeldoorn who conducted 3D data analysis at TU Delft