page_title: Muri statuette group
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Muri statuette group / History
caption_attribution_description: English: The Muri statuette group as first depicted in the Hinkender Bote of 1832. Deutsch: Die erste Darstellung der Bronzefunde von Muri im Hinkenden Boten von 1832.
context_page_description: The Muri statuette group is a group of six Gallo-Roman bronze figurines found in 1832 in Muri bei Bern, Switzerland. The group includes representations of the gods Jupiter, Juno, Minerva, Naria, Artio and of a Lare. The ensemble includes the only known representations of Artio and Naria, and is one of the more significant items in the collection of the Historical Museum of Bern.
context_section_description: The statues are believed to be the idols worshiped at the temple of the regio Arurensis – the religious association of the region of the river Aar – whose name is inscribed on the pedestal of the Naria statue. The temple belonged to a large Roman estate. At an unknown time, probably to protect them against some threat, the statues were removed from the temple, locked in a chest and brought to a nearby building in whose ruins they were found 1,500 years later, in May 1832.
  Together with a number of household effects from the Roman period, the statues were found during an excavation for a new garden for the parsonage of Muri. Part of the decorative fittings and the iron key of the chest were also unearthed, but the key was later lost. The find was reported, together with drawings of the statues, in the Hinkender Bote, the main regional periodical of the time. The find soon drew a crowd of interested visitors, and the cantonal government dispatched one of its members, Regierungsrat Lohner, to inspect the find. After lengthy negotiations with the parson, the government acquired the statues after paying a finder's fee of 400 Berne franks.
  The group was put on display in various government rooms until it was acquired by the Historical Museum of Bern, where it is now exhibited. From 1905 on, a drawing of Artio and the bear by Rudolf Münger was pictured on the title sheet of the journal of the Bernese historical society, Blätter für bernische Geschichte, Kunst und Altertumskunde. This helped to establish Artio in the public consciousness as a particularly Bernese bear goddess, which fit with the tradition of the bear as Berne's heraldic animal and namesake.
caption: The statues as depicted in the 1832 Hinkender Bote.
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