Thomas Struth’s Pergamon Museum 4 (2001) is a large-scale color photograph of a group of visitors to the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. The image is part of a series by the German artist which includes photographing both the excavated findings of 19th century German archaeologist and engineer, Carl Humann, and visitors to their presentation. The Pergamon Museum was built specifically to house the reconstructed Pergamon Alter from the 2nd century BC, which Humann relocated from Greece to the former East Berlin. Before the reunification of East and West Germany in 1989, the museum and its holdings were difficult to access not only by Americans and Western Europeans, but by its original patrons. Renovations currently underway at the museum have made the altar unavailable to the public until 2027. Since Struth took the photo in 2001, there has been a growing global movement in support of reconstitution of found and displaced objects from fallen empires or as a result of colonization. According to Struth, his image honors the period after the collapse of the Berlin Wall when this work “became again visible and tangible for debate.”[1]

 [1] Struth quoted in the press release for “Thomas Struth: Pergamon I-VI.” Marian Goodman Gallery, 2002.