Antiquities modified through restoration have shaped the study of ancient sculpture from the very beginning: Statues that were added to, completed, or otherwise modified between 1500 and 1900 represent a considerable portion of the surviving material basis. In a discussion of selected examples this volume seeks to shed light on the circumstances surrounding such restorative modification.

In this catalog of an exhibition at the cast gallery of ancient sculpture of the Free University of Berlin, for the first time ancient sculptures are presented together with the literary and epigraphic evidence from the 6th century BC to the 11th century AD, and both given equal emphasis. Based on a representative selection of 40 works and the relevant written sources, the exhibition discusses important problems of text and sculpture, and so contributes to a better understanding of ancient sculpture. Topics considered include a consideration of the basis on which statues have been identified, attributed to a sculptor and dated. The catalog is the result of an interdisciplinary project intended to replace the obsolete standard work by Johannes Overbeck, Die antiken Schriftquellen zur Geschichte der bildenden KA1/4nste bei den Griechen (1868), and to update it to meet modern needs by including a translation, a philosophical-epigraphic and archaeological commentary, a list of literary references and illustrations. The a oeNew Overbecka will be published by de Gruyter in 2009 in four volumes.

Im Nordostteil des Wörlitzer Parks erhebt sich über der Wasserfläche am 'Großen Walloch' das Pantheon des Architekten Friedrich Wilhelm von Erdmannsdorff. In Gestalt und Lage erinnert es an Beispiele in englischen Landschaftsgärten. Fürst Franz von Anhalt-Dessau (1740-1817) versuchte, angelehnt an Johann Joachim Winckelmanns 'Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums', im Inneren des Pantheons mit Skulpturen und Nachbildungen eine Vorstellung von der Abfolge antiker Kunstentwicklung zu vermitteln, die noch heute dort ausgestellt sind.