Lindenhurst art collector finds 3300-year-old Egyptian sculpture

Lindenhurst art collector finds 3300-year-old Egyptian sculpture

by Cindy True

Art collector Joanne Salvador, a resident of Linden-hurst, never imagined she would be the proud owner of a rare portrait sculpture of Pharaoh Tutankhamen.

"This is the Holy Grail of Egyptology," Salvador said of the 3,300-year-old head that was once part of a statue of Tutankhamen.

Salvador, an adult education teacher Egyptology classes, has loved art since she was eight. She found this rare piece almost perfectly intact with her partner Andrei Zimmerman. The head was initially purchased prior to World War II in Cairo, Egypt by a world renowned collector who has since died. After extensive research, the Salvador and Zimmerman were able to find the piece, and purchased it.

"We put some clues together and tracked it down," Salvador said. "No one knew it existed because it was kept wrapped up for 60 years."

The head depicts the face of Tutankhamen in the form of the god Kahonsu. The delicate, yellow limestone portrait sculpture is only damaged in back, where it is bashed in after possibly being thrown. Proceeding Tutankhamen’s death, political upheaval led to the destruction of nearly all sculptures and works of art depicting him. Few survived this tumultuous period.

"I was stunned," Salvador said upon finding this portrait sculpture. "I was actually speechless, and I am never speechless."

After obtaining the portrait sculpture, Salvador researched more about the piece. While flipping through publications, she found an exact match for the head she was holding in her hand.

"I knew what it was, but I did not know it existed in publications," Salvador said.

The head is inscribed with the royal cartouche, hieroglyphs, that read "Nebkheprure," Tutankhamen’s throne name. The same statue, standing eight feet tall with the same inscription, exists in the Cairo Museum, according to Salvador.

Salvador, who has been collecting art for years, has never found anything "of this magnitude.

"It will never get any better than this," she said.

For Salvador, obtaining this piece was "more of a mental journey than a physical one." She did not travel with Zimmerman through Egypt and uncover it, but the research and intellectual searching involved was a journey in and of itself.

This portrait sculpture will be on display along with other rare works on September 23, 7 to 10 p.m. at the Museum of Long Island Natural Sciences in the ESS building on the Stony Brook University campus.

"A person who gets to find something like this is a very lucky person," Salvador said. "And I am a very lucky person."