Curating a stable home for Hellenic antiquities and more at Winchester College

Series of sculptures of the ancient Greek era

Source: Winchester College

The former stables that now hold Winchester College’s museum may date from the 14th century, but they’re young compared to many of the items that museum now holds, from an ancient Egyptian scarab necklace to a Corinthian alabastron.

With support from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), the school in Winchester, England, prepared this phenomenal collection to serve as an educational resource for its students, as well as for groups from other local schools and for the public.

Take a virtual tour of the Winchester College Treasury

After the museum opened in 2016, a grant from SNF supported the newly created position of a Museum Curator over its first three years of operation, helping ensure that the objects in the collection can be accessed, enjoyed, and used as teaching aids.

In addition to learning to tell their kylikes from their kraters by studying examples of the real thing, students can study plaster casts of notable ancient Greek works, like 15 panels of the Parthenon Frieze. A previous SNF grant to Winchester College in 2010 enabled the restoration of these 19th-century Parthenon casts, which preserve details of the carving now lost on the original stone through weathering.

Increasing access to educational resources and sharing Hellenic heritage and culture around the world are key focuses of SNF’s work. They guided a parallel grant to the College of Staten Island to restore another set of 19th-century Parthenon Frieze plaster casts.