LOUIS DE CLERCQ, A PASSION FOR THE LEVANT: SELECTED OBJECTS FROM HIS COLLECTION AT THE LOUVRE MUSEUM

Abstract

The Louis de Clercq Collection, housed in the Department of Egyptian Antiquities at the Louvre Museum,
comprises objects made of a range of materials, including bronze, stone, marble, and faience, as well as a number of
scarabs and scaraboids. These items derive from a group of antiquities assembled in the Levant during the second half
of the 19th century by Louis de Clercq, a French politician and antiquities collector. This article provides a brief overview
of the history of the collection and examines a selection of bronze and stone objects as iconographic and material
evidence for cultural exchanges and interactions between Egypt and the Levant during the 1st millennium BCE.

Keywords: Louis de Clercq; Aegyptiaca; Bronzes; Amulets; Egypt; Levant.