Storerooms of the Topkapi Palace

[Zifir]

These are recently taken pictures of the storerooms in the Topkapi Palace. They pay such a "great attention" in storing such valuable materials that it makes you cry :mad: :eek: :mad:

http://fotogaleri.hurriyet.com.tr/galeridetay.aspx?cid=29711&rid=2

[Rick]

Rust never sleeps . :(
Sad, but thrilling to look in the back room .

Still, if they had a clearance sale I'd be right there . :D

Thank you Zifir .

Rick

[Gavin Nugent]

Tears tears and more tears, such a waste. Very grateful the images are out for all to view though, thank you.

Gavin

[CharlesS]

Normally every greedy collecting bone in my body would be standing at attention over these pics....but for some reason I just wanna cry. This is such a waste. Think of how many of the smaller museums in Turkey would LOVE to have just one or two examples in their collections, but instead....this!

[KuKulzA28]

That's an arsenal of weapons losing to rust...

They could hire me to clean every one of those.. I'd do it. :shrug:

[Aleksey G.]

Oh my!... I think im gonna have a premature ej..eja..evacuation looking at these, especially the first several pics with all the shamies

Zifir thank you for posting these. Wow, I wonder if some of the museums in US are keeping their "off-season" stuff in the same manner.

[Nonoy Tan]

Sad.

IMHO, what is needed here is concrete action. Can the weapons collectors of this country meet and discuss ways how they can provide assistance?

[ward]

The situation in this museum is normal. In some museums you would find the items in piles on the floor. When you have a large collection there is no way, unless there is a large amount of money behind it that individual care can be taken on each piece.

[ilias]

As I see from the images there is no big waist yet but it will be at the future.
I am sure that something will be done to save them!!!

[mavi1970]

all I can say is wow. Been to the palace many times, and seen the dispayed collections, but never knew about these. Definately next summer when I am there I will ask if they can let me see these. Such a waste. I wonder what there is in the storage of the military museum, probably even more, but being under military control, I would hope in better cleaner condition. And to see all those helmets, shields, bows, to have one of each. hehe

[ariel]

If you remember Yucel's descriptions of the Topkapi's "top" collection, some swords were mentioned as having cartouches or signatures that were just erased due to improper "cleaning " in the very recent past. Apparently, the Topkapi's problems may run deeper than just poor storage and lack of regular care.

[Marc]

To be sincere... I've been in a few museum storage rooms, and for what I can see from the pictures this one isn't the best I've seen, for sure... but it's FAR from being the worst :(. Given the circumstances, I would dare to say it's not that bad, in fact...

[Zifir]

I agree that there might be worse places and museums in terms of storing and also there are other deeper problems for Topkapı concerned. But still it aches one's heart to see all those beautiful chain mails and swords are rusting :(

[dennee]

Like others here, I've seen worse. At least there's some order to it. But I wouldn't hang the mail or textiles. And it looks like there's not proper climate control, given the proximity to windows and even an open louvered vent in one photo. It would be great if they could perform proper conservation on each piece, but it is expensive and time-consuming.

[A Senefelder]

Thank you for posting the pics. Its always a pleasure to be able to see otherwise inaccessible arms and armour. As others have said the storage isn't unfortunately uncommon, but its still really nice to see the stash. The racks and racks of maille, helmets and kalkans was especially nice ( the racks of maces were pretty spiffy as well ).

[mross]

All in all does not seem that bad, could be much worse. The storage while not optimal seems adequate. Now if they need some extra funds and someone could whisper in their ear about ebay ..... :D