Professor Brian Shefton, Greek and Etruscan historian, 92
Professor Brian Shefton, who has died aged 92, was a leading expert on Greek and Etruscan artefacts; after joining Newcastle University in 1955 as a lecturer in Greek Archaeology and Ancient History, he began to build up a collection of treasures which led to the university’s Greek Museum being renamed the Shefton Museum of Greek Art and Archaeology in his honour.
It was Charles Bosanquet, then Rector of the university, who had the idea of building a collection of Greek artefacts. Newcastle had a reputation for Roman archaeology, but Bosanquet had been born in Athens and wanted to show off the other great culture of the classical world. As Shefton recalled: “He called me in and said, 'Here’s £25 to get some objects to interest people who are going to take up Greek archaeology’.”...