The Warren Cup: Roman Original or Modern forgery?

Video of the event available here.

A King’s and Institute of Classical Studies event, centred around the British Museum’s ‘Warren Cup’, has recently hit the national and international headlines, including coverage in The Guardian and The Daily Mail. 

The event was focused around the origins of the British Museum’s Warren Cup – a small, silver drinking vessel decorated in low relief with scenes of homosexual intercourse.  The British Museum purchased the cup in 1999 for £1.8m: since then, the cup has been one of the most cherished pieces in the British Museum's Roman Galleries (and a highlight of Neil MacGregor's History of the World in 100 Objects). 

But on 12 March, the King's Classics Department hosted a lecture by Prof. Luca Giuliani (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin / Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin) titled 'The Warren Cup: A piece of mimetic craftsmanship around 1900?'. Instead of dating the cup to the first century AD, Prof. Luca Giuliani argued that the object is in fact an early twentieth-century forgery – its explicit imagery specially designed to suit the tastes of its first, eponymous owner. While Prof. Giuliani's research on the 'Warren Cup' has attracted much media attention in Germany, this was the first time that he addressed a British audience on the subject.  The British Museum was invited to respond to Prof. Giuliani’s claims, represented at the event by Prof. Dyfri Williams (former Keeper of Antiquities at the British Museum, and now Senior Research Fellow at the Université Libre de Bruxelles). After the two lectures, the discussion was opened to the floor, with a number of experts and specialists invited to take part.

This staged debate about the Warren Cup (organised in close collaboration with the Institute of Classical Studies, British Museum, King’s Classics Society and Queer@King’s) was an open event: it was attended by some 150 scholars, students, and members of the public. A reception was held after the discussion in Chapters, sponsored by the Department of Classics’ Jamie Rumble Memorial Fund. The Warren Cup event marked the close of this year’s special guest-lectures on ‘Medium and mimesis in Classical Art’ (co-organised by King’s and the Institute of Classical Studies).

Because of the huge interest in the proceedings, King’s recorded the Warren Cup Event (both the lectures and the discussion): to watch it, please click here. 

For further information about the event and for media enquiries, please contact Dr Michael Squire (michael.squire@kcl.ac.uk).