ROCKEFELLER MUSEUM

Name popularly given to the Palestine Archaeological Museum in Jerusalem.

The museum, which opened in 1938, was funded by $2 million pledged by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., to match an endowment fund. The building, designed by Austen St. Barbe. Harrison, stands on ten acres facing the Old City walls. In addition to exhibition space, there are study galleries, record offices, a library, an auditorium, and offices. An ancient cemetery, dating from the sixth and fifth centuries b.c.e., was discovered on the site and excavated.

Before the termination of Britain's Palestine Mandate in 1948, the building was turned over to an international board. In November 1966, Jordan nationalized the museum and took possession of the building and its contents. After capturing Jerusalem during the Arab-Israel War of 1967, Israel took over the museum, claiming it as captured Jordanian state property. It entrusted the museum to the Israeli Department of Antiquities, which invited the Israel Museum to operate the exhibition galleries. This move created controversy. For example, when the Israel Museum tried to include some items from the Rockefeller Museum in an exhibition in the United States entitled "Treasures from the Holy Land: Ancient Art from the Israel Museum" in 1985, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City challenged Israel's acquisition of some of the items. The U.S. Smithsonian Institution then agreed to host the exhibit the following year, but objected to the inclusion of eleven artifacts from the Rockefeller Museum. Israel refused to change the exhibition, which consequently was not shown.

see also arab–israel war (1967); archaeology in the middle east.

Bibliography

Reed, Stephen A. The Dead Sea Scrolls Catalogue: Documents, Photographs and Museum Inventory Numbers. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1994.

mia bloom
updated by michael r. fischbach