The ownership history of the antiquities collection of Baron Plato von Ustinow is well-documented from the time that Ustinow brought it from Ottoman Palestine to England in 1913. Its earlier history, however, is only poorly understood. What is the origin of the various items in the collection, and how did Ustinow acquire them? On these questions, scholars often end up grasping at straws. Much is made, for instance, of a letter written in 1913, but this is a sales pitch dating some decades after many of the items were acquired.
In this presentation, I will survey the best sources we have concerning the provenance of the items in the collection, and present some of the main conclusions we can draw from them.