O Brothers, Where Art Thou? Scholarship on Papyri in Private Collections

O Brothers, Where Art Thou? Scholarship on Papyri in Private Collections

Along with many published and unpublished papyri, the papyrus containing Sappho’s Brothers Poem is currently in (anonymous) private hands. This paper intends to contribute to the discussion about what this fact should mean for scholarship on the papyrus in question. 

When I recently enquired about an Oxyrhynchus papyrus (P.Oxy. III 475) donated to the Charterhouse School in the early 20th century, I was informed that it had been sold to a private buyer in 2002. As Mazza’s researches into a fragment of the Gospel show (P.Oxy. XV 1780, cf. Mazza 2015), other Oxyrhynchus papyri have been sold by the institutions to which they had been donated. 

An even more problematic case is that of the papyrus with Sappho’s Brothers Poem (P.Sapph.Obbink), whose murky provenance has been illuminated by much recent investigative journalism and scholarship (Mazza 2015, Sabar 2020, Sampson 2020). The fragments from the same roll briefly owned by the Green Collection (P.GC inv. 105) are being repatriated to Egypt, but the current owner of the largest fragment is unknown. As the poems on P.Sapph.Obbink have stirred up much discussion among scholars, we are now faced with the question whether we can continue publishing on and thereby legitimising the papyrus. 

Scholarly publications on papyri that are (or may be) on the private market are likely to influence their value and legitimacy. This is especially problematic if the papyri’s provenance is poorly documented or even proven to be illegal. Even after publication, the current whereabouts of a papyrus matter. This brings me to two questions: 

1. Whose responsibility is it to ascertain the current whereabouts of a papyrus? 
2. What (if any) should be the consequences for a scholar who (wittingly or even unwittingly) publishes about a papyrus on the private market? 

Let me anticipate some of the thoughts that I will elaborate in the paper: I believe that we cannot expect all papyrologists to become investigative journalists, and even if we were, it would be impossible to track exactly which papyri are in private hands. We may talk about this as a task for the original collection, provided they have the funds and people to pursue this. In preparation for this talk I will provide a more complete census of the current whereabouts of Oxyrhynchus papyri donated to other institutions. 

Once we know that a papyrus is in private hands, and we believe that there should be a scholarly boycott, it will be hard to decide where to draw the line: should we allow publications about the very issue of provenance or the current whereabouts, but not those that focus only on the contents? Wherever we draw this line, I have trouble imagining how any decision we take as a field can be enforced. I believe it will have to be sufficient for all scholarship on such papyri should give an open and complete account of the papyrus’ provenance and whereabouts, and, if warranted, call for repatriation.