University meets Kunsthalle: Plaster casts from the collection enhance the new exhibition

23 April 2026, by Anna Priebe

Photo: UHH/Priebe

The 28 items on loan include both large statues and small casts, such as these three depictions of women.

For centuries, plaster casts of statues and other ancient sculptures have been an integral part of Art History and archaeological research. The University of Hamburg owns an extensive collection—and is now lending some of the pieces to the Hamburger Kunsthalle. Prof. Dr. Fanny Opdenhoff and Prof. Dr. Christof Berns from the Department of Studies in Culture and Arts explain how the plaster casts complement the exhibition “SKULPTURAL.”

The Kunsthalle’s new exhibition also features plaster casts from the university’s collection. Which statues and portraits are included?

Opdenhoff: We are lending 28 plaster casts to the Kunsthalle that hold a special place in the history of the collection. These include several reliefs, portraits, and statuettes, as well as large-scale statues such as a Kore—that is, a female figure—from the Erechtheion Temple on the Acropolis in Athens, or the so-called Great Herculanean and the Athena Lemnia. All of these objects are plaster casts made by molding ancient statues. However, the casts themselves are sometimes more than 170 years old.

What else are these pieces used for at the university?

Opdenhoff: We use the casts in many ways, such as in university teaching. Using these representations, students learn about the details and History of various styles through three-dimensional objects. We also use the casts to discuss current issues, such as the evolution of the depiction of emotions or the functions of visual art in antiquity.

We also use the collection to make our questions and findings accessible to the public, for example during guided tours led by colleagues, students, and myself. School classes and students from northern Lower Saxony all the way to Kiel and Flensburg also visit us regularly to engage intensively with the form, function, and content of the artworks.

What do the casts contribute to the exhibition at the Kunsthalle?

Berns: The plaster casts evoke a phase in museum history when casts were routinely used to supplement exhibitions and, for example, to fill chronological or thematic gaps in the original collections. They were a popular medium for displaying antiquities—regarded as exemplary—even away from their original locations. For us, it is interesting to see what aesthetic effect the casts have in the museum spaces.

How did the collaboration come about?

Berns: As early as 2022, our colleagues at the Hamburger Kunsthalle approached us to discuss whether and how we could collaborate on content and whether we could loan some casts for the planned exhibition. The background is that the majority of our collection was formerly housed at the Hamburger Kunsthalle before it was sold to the university in the 1980s. The conception and planning of the exhibition, as well as the underlying research, took place at the Kunsthalle. Here at our institute, however, we created content for a multimedia guide as part of a course with students, which is intended to complement the Kunsthalle’s visitor program at a later date.

Will there also be other events, such as guided tours, organized by the university?

Opdenhoff: There will be several events at the Kunsthalle in which we from the Institute of Classical Archaeology will participate with our expertise. In addition, we also hope that many visitors to the exhibition will become aware of the collection at the university and will visit the plaster casts here as part of a Sunday tour or on one of the open Wednesday afternoons.

(This content has been translated automatically.)