Umgeformtes Erbe: Ein burgundisches Geschützrohr

Transformed Heritage looks at five innovative gun barrels that were cast in bronze in 1474 for the Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold. Only one of them has survived to the present day. This study traces the story of the other four using materials dating from the end of the fifteenth right up to the twentieth century. These include picture chronicles, armoury inventories, written armoury records, gun barrel fragments and drawings by the mercenary Urs Graf. This work is more than a standard object biography or provenance narrative, shedding light on the gaps within the archival record. It also shows how selectively history is recorded and passed down. Canons have largely been suppressed in the canon of art history – so it is high time to reevaluate their significance as booty, their destructive potential and the contribution they have made to the constitution of cultural identity.

This series in four volumes examines four museum exhibits as examples to show how and why objects that were violently looted or confiscated due to religious differences became “art” over the centuries and a part of Swiss cultural heritage.