The plaster cast collection of Greco-Roman statues purchased back in 1974 was intended to provide the opportunity to view and study such masterpieces with an attention to detail and precision rarely attainable through any other medium. While the original purpose of the collection was to act as a study collection, the Museum over the years has grown to become an important cultural asset within the wider community of both Saskatoon and Saskatchewan as a whole. 

Reaching out and engaging with the community has become one of the primary long-term goals of the Museum. The Museum offers programming for people of all ages, including the Ancient and Medieval Adventure Camps offered in the summer. The Museum also takes part in various community events, such as Ghost Tours offered by the Diefenbaker Canada Centre, the Saskatoon Family Expo, and the Saskatoon Heritage Festival. 

Another long-term aim of the Museum and its collection is to offer a reliable and critical account of the artistic accomplishments of various ancient cultures from approximately 3000 BCE to 1500 CE. The collection’s expansion into the art of the ancient Near East, Egypt, and early Islam provides a welcome and necessary counterpoint to the Greco-Roman antiquities in the collection, illustrating both the similarities, differences, and influences of the artistic traditions of the ancient world. The collection is still utilized today by students and faculty in various departments and disciplines across the University of Saskatchewan campus, including Classical, Medieval, Renaissance Studies (CMRS), History, Anthropology, Drama, and more. 

Most of the pieces in the Museum of Antiquities are replicas. A replica is a work that is created directly from, and is practically indistinguishable from, its original. The replicas in our Museum are, in general, not crafted from the same material as the original. Most are casts of plaster or resin, not marble or bronze, for the obvious reasons of expense and weight. The replicas by large workshops—such as those at the Louvre, Paris, the British Museum, London, and the Gipsformerei der Staatlichen Museen, Berlin—are created from moulds taken directly from the original pieces. They therefore replicate exactly any damage borne by the original. After the plaster cast is unmoulded, it is painted and given a surface finish which matches the original.

The aim of the present collection is to offer a reliable and critical account of the accomplishments of all periods and cultures in the field of Western sculptural art. Such an objective would be unattainable for museums of priceless originals, but is within the bounds of possibility with a relatively inexpensive cast collection. It is not the rarity or fame of the work that determines the price of a replica, only the cost of production. A faithful copy of the priceless and famous Venus de Milo, for instance, entails no greater expense than would any other statue of its size. Although a replica cannot serve as an investment or status symbol for a collector, a well-crafted cast provides a unique instrument of study and research in addition to its aesthetic qualities.

In fact, the guarded treasures of departments of antiquity in museums are mostly ancient copies of Greek works made to grace Roman homes. Without these ancient copies, our knowledge of ancient statuary would be most fragmentary. Furthermore, the intermediary procedure and technique used by the sculptors of antiquity correspond to the modern plaster casting technique.

Often a plaster cast will fare better than the original, made of marble or bronze, which has been destroyed or mutilated beyond repair. The replicas of the panels from the Parthenon frieze, for example, are in better condition than the original panels, which were until recently still in situ and had deteriorated, attacked daily by air pollution. Should some major disaster occur and destroy the original, the corresponding replica from this museum could easily be elevated from its humble station of a copy to the high rank of a prototype.

Thus we are doubly indebted to the procedure of replication: the easy, economical technique and light weight of its product makes it relatively easy to create and disperse high quality prototypes all over the world. Thanks to replication, the “survival of the species” is assured and we have the opportunity of knowing and appreciating, at such a distance in time and space, the great creations of the remote past.

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