Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 August 2014
Assyrian sculptures have been treated in various ways. Neglected original records about pieces found at Nineveh can still be informative. Pieces that did not go at once to major public museums were sometimes liable to rejuvenation, detached from their original contexts but endowed with new significance as commercial assets, as independent works of art, or as integral parts of contemporary architecture. Two Nimrud sculptures, built into the walls of Newbattle Abbey near Edinburgh, represent a unique fusion of Assyrian and Scots artistry, now vulnerable to financial pressures.