Elif Büyükgençoğlu

Biography

Elif has worked at the Istanbul Archaeological Museums since 2015. She started in the Museum of the Ancient Orient and focused on cylinder seals from Mesopotamia. Elif is involved in an ongoing project on Ancient Near Eastern Art based on cylinder and stamp seals from the Ancient Mesopotamian Collection.

Elif has been in charge of the Department of Metal Artefacts and Jewelry during the restoration and reinstallation of the museum. This collection includes objects made of precious metals including gold and silver, and ivory and gemstones. More recently, Elif has been focusing on metalworks from the Byzantine Period, which have been unearthed in excavations across Istanbul.

More of Elif’s professional interests include museum education for children and public programmes.

At the British Museum

During Elif’s time on the International Training Programme she was based in the Department of Greece and Rome and spent her UK partner placement at Manchester Museum, Manchester Art Gallery and Whitworth Art Gallery.

As an ongoing project throughout the six-week programme, fellows were asked to use their existing skills and experience, and the knowledge gained throughout the annual programme, to create, develop, and propose a new interpretation for an object currently on display in the British Museum. Elif, along with her departmental group, used their object, a marble statue of Apollo with a kithara and quiver, to tell the story of Apollo in Greek mythology.

Elif’s participation on the International Training Programme was generously supported by the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust.