The author played an inadvertent role in the greatest burst of Assyrian publicity in history. His discovery of an original sculpture still in place in the Nineveh Porch and its sale at auction provide a view of the modes of presentation for ancient art in the modern world. Analysis of the sale, and particularly its presentation by the international press, reveals things that we would perhaps prefer not to know about ourselves.

  We have traveled with this group of Assyrian sculptures on their journey through time and space, examining the changing landscape of the presentation and reception of the idea of Assyria (and the idea of art) as we go. Who can guess what the future holds for these pieces ? Upon seeing the Nimrud bull, the counterpart to the one at Canford, being dragged up the steps into the British Museum in 1850.