Treasures and Treasure Hunting in Law and History Exhibition Launch

Treasures and Treasure Hunting in Law and History opens at Oxford Brookes University Library on Wednesday 28 October, with a launch event from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm in the Special Collections Room. The exhibition follows more than 2,000 years of treasure and treasure hunting, from Roman antiquity through to modern pop culture, and the launch features a talk by its curator, Johannes Dillinger, Professor of Early Modern History at Brookes.

It's a wide-ranging collection. On display are magical texts from a private collection alongside archaeological finds and historical documents, many of which are being shown for the first time outside Germany. They're paired with holdings from the Brookes library itself, including a 16th-century print of the Corpus Iuris Civilis, the most influential compendium of Roman law. The talk will be given by Dillinger himself, so you'll get the story straight from the person who put it together.

There's a bit of a track record behind this one, too. Dillinger curated the world's first international exhibition on the history of treasure hunting at the Medieval Crime and Justice Museum in Rothenburg, Germany, back in 2023, which drew nearly half a million visitors. This is the Brookes version of that conversation, bringing together the legal side of things and the actual objects people have spent centuries hunting for.

The launch is free, though you do need to register in advance, and refreshments will be served. If you can't make the opening night, the exhibition stays open from 1:00 pm to 4:30 pm, Monday to Friday, from 26 October to 30 November 2026. You'll find it in the Special Collections Room of the John Henry Brookes Building on the Headington Campus, OX3 0BP.