I said this when I visited the Archaelogical Museum in Athens, and I still believe it’s true: if you want to see the finest examples of Attic Greek ceramics, don’t look in Greece.* They were begged, bought, or stolen from the country in the colonial period and now sit in Northern European museums–such as Berlin’s Altes Museum.
The Museum’s stunning collection was assembled primarily from the imperial Prussian hoards of a series of Friedrichs and Wilhelms, with some additions from Schliemann’s predations excavations in the late 19th century. I visited specifically to view the Delphic kylix, the only extant contemporary depiction of the Pythia (above, with King Aegeus, who was consulting her about his childlessness; she instructed him not to “loose the foot of the bulging wineskin” until he was home in Athens, but of course he got Aethra pregnant with Theseus on the way home, drama ensued with his wife, etc….) But there were lots of other gorgeous pieces in the collection–mostly from the Classical period, but some nice geometric examples as well.
*There are some exceptions, mostly due to rare post-colonial excavations that turn up an intact ship or gravesite, like the beautiful Akrotiri (Thira) dig exhibition at the Archaelogical Museum.
The Rookery 