History of the Collection
The Senusret Collection, composed of more than 1,500 objects, is one of the most extensive collections of ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern art to be donated to a US museum.
The Senusret Collection was assembled by Georges Ricard in the early 1970s. He chose to name the collection after Hetep-Senusret, the workmen’s village associated with the pyramid of Senusret II. Ricard was an industrialist with a passionate interest in the ancient world, and he soon began to search for a place where he could share the collection with the public.
He hired the well-known Monaco architect Louis Rué, and together they created a space to display ancient art in a modern setting. Mirrored walls reflected objects in steel and glass vitrines, and a number of walls were painted by artist Jacques Bonnery with scenes from ancient Egyptian tomb chapels to provide context for the objects. One journalist described the effect: “There is no doubt, this new museum is a success and a timely success.”
On June 2, 1975, the Museum of Egypt and the Ancient World, located on Monaco’s Avenue Saint-Martin, opened its doors to the public. Ricard left his career as an industrialist to become the curator.
Within a few years, the museum closed due to conservation concerns. Soon after, the Ricard family moved to California, and Georges entered negotiations with the art museum at the University of California, Santa Barbara to house and exhibit the Senusret Collection. Unfortunately, the plan was halted by state budgetary cutbacks. Nonetheless, the collection moved from Monaco to Santa Barbara.
In the interest of bringing the Senusret Collection to a larger audience, Georges and his son Yann researched the collection and published it online as The Virtual Egyptian Museum in 1997. The objective was to use technology to share the collection with the public; provide a museum experience to those, especially students, living in areas distant from cultural centers; develop a cost-effective model for complete online museums; use the collection as the foundation for an educational journey in Egyptology; and help the collection find a permanent home in a public institution offering excellent professional conservation care.
A few years before his death, Georges transferred ownership of the Senusret Collection to a trust for the benefit of the family's non-profit public benefit corporation the California Institute of World Archaeology (a 501 (c) (3)). After the death of Georges, the CIWA was formally renamed the Georges Ricard Foundation. In 2018, the board of the Georges Ricard Foundation worked with consulting Egyptologists to find a permanent home for the Senusret Collection at a museum with broad-based commitment to education and conservation.
Ultimately, the foundation chose the Michael C. Carlos Museum of Emory University, where the Senusret Collection will serve as a resource not only for university students, faculty, and staff but also for the greater Atlanta community. After the collection is researched and conserved, a process likely to take several years, it will go on view in a special exhibition at the Carlos Museum.
Click the link to the right to view a selection artworks from the Senusret Collection.