Mansoor Amarna Corporation
P.O.Box 280511
Northridge, California 91328-0511 ( 707 ) 578-4755
E-mail mansoora@aol.com
Fax ( 707 ) 578-4755 Please call before you Fax

The President of the Board of Trustees
The Amarna Research Foundation, Inc.
16082 East Loyola Place
Aurora, CO 80013
Dear Sir:

Re : Dennis Forbes, Editor, KMT, San Francisco
Dietrich Wildung, Direktor of the Berlin Museum

It is with surprise and dismay that I read in KMT that the title of "Honorary Trustee" was bestowed upon Mr. Dennis Forbes, Editor of KMT and Prof. Dr. Dietrich Wildung, Direktor of the Berlin Museum.

The Honorable George Xanthos, Judge of the Superior Court of the State of California, cited Prof. Dr. Dietrich Wildung as an example of "people in museum circles who are intellectually dishonest" (see the preface of The Scandal of the Century: The Mansoor Amarna Exposé). To the best of our knowledge, Prof. Dr. Wildung has never seen, nor examined, the collection of Amarna artifacts acquired by my late father, M. A. Mansoor, beginning in the early 1920's and yet declared it to be a forgery, without providing any tangible evidence. In 1985, Prof. Dr. Dietrich Wildung successfully prevented Dr. A. L. Becker-Colonna from delivering a RESEARCH paper, regarding the Mansoor Amarna Collection, to a panel of Egyptologists at the 4th International Conference of Egyptology, which was held in Munich in 1985. This act alone speaks volumes about Prof. Dr. Wildung's lack of respect for academic research.

In the early days of KMT, its editor, Mr. Dennis Forbes, visited an exhibit of the Mansoor Amarna Collection at San Francisco State University. He was impressed by the beauty of the sculptures . . . "I found the individual pieces, subject matter aside, to be highly attractive examples of stone carving in the round and relief, with especially appealing "patina," and apparent "weathering" and even went as far as offering to publish a debate on the Mansoor Amarna Collection in Amarna Letters 2. He further wrote: " Rather than to continue dismissing the Mansoor-El Amarna Collection out of hand and "off the record" on unspecified stylistic grounds, I would challenge knowledgeable, well-credentialed Egyptologist art-historians to debate on the record why these particular sculptures are either bonafide antiquities or else merely audacious antique curiosities. Perhaps I will be able to generate such a debate for Amarna Letters 2!" Idealistic as it was, that project of Mr. Forbes never got off the ground, when Prof. Dr. Wildung chastised him, and told him to never again publish anything regarding the Mansoor Amarna Collection. Subsequently, KMT appointed Prof. Dr. Wildung to its Advisory Board. It is true, of course, that the Mansoor family does not have the clout, in the world of professional Egyptology, that Dr. Wildung has.

More recently, during the fall of 1995, KMT twice refused an ad for The Scandal of the Century: The Mansoor Amarna Expose, stating to the publisher that it first had to be reviewed to ascertain that it met its advertising criteria. Apparently it did not; instead KMT published a disparaging review of the book in its Spring 1996 issue, and on the Internet. Letters to Mr. Forbes, reacting to the review were never published in KMT. We plan to publish some of these letters on the Internet in the near future.

The authenticity of the Mansoor Amarna Collection has never been disproved by offering valid evidence. On the other hand, all of the scholars with solid scientific reputation that have seen and examined the collection have found it to exhibit solid evidence of antiquity. The late Dr. H.W. Muller, a German Egyptologist of repute, had declared the sculptures to be fakes, based on photographs and on a couple of demonstrably false assumptions, and Prof. Dr. Wildung chose to accept Dr.Muller's verdict. To form an opinion of an artifact from photographs is not unlike an attempt to determine the competence of a scientist by looking at his portrait.

Since your name indicates that your specific interest is RESEARCH, you may already realize that the scientific evidence regarding the collection is overwhelmingly in favor of its authenticity. You may also know, that your neighbor, The Denver Art Museum, which owns two pieces from the Mansoor Amarna Collection, has refused our offer to buy back the pieces they own. The administrators of the Denver Museum seem to have an exceptionally acute insight into the truth regarding the Collection.

If you desire more detailed information about the Mansoor Amarna Collection, you may want to access the Internet at http://www.amarna.com. Some scientific reports may not be posted at this time; if you want a hard copy of those missing, I shall be glad to send one to you.

As a result of our past experiences, we are making this an "Open Letter" which we intend to place on the Internet. I will be glad to post your answer on the Internet too, and send a copy to those individuals who will receive a copy of this letter.

Sincerely,

Alfred Mansoor, Secretary

cc. Mr. Dennis Forbes, KMT,
Prof. Dr. Dietrich Wildung, Berlin Museum
Major National and International News Media
Other interested Institutions, individuals and on the Internet @ http://www.amarna.com/eir/imports/letr2arf.htm