From Nineveh to New York

The story of Sir Austen Henry Layard's rediscovery of ancient Assyria and its fabled capital, Nineveh, is one of the great tales of nineteenth-century archeological imperialism, genius, and romance. In this social history of the reception of ancient Assyrian art in England and subsequently America, John Malcolm Russell focuses on the huge collection of artifacts that Layard brought back to England.

Much went to the British Museum, but much also to the fascinating Lady Charlotte Guest and then - via a Manhattan dealer and numerous competitive curators and millionaires - to the Metropolitan Museum.