As LACMA prepares for the 2026 public opening of the new David Geffen Galleries, the future home of the museum’s permanent collection spanning a breadth of eras and cultures, we’re sharing 50 iconic artworks that will be on view in the building over the next 50 weeks in the series 50 Works 50 Weeks.

While popular imagination often associates ancient Egypt with monumental tombs, mummies, and pyramids, it is our understanding of everyday life that allows this distant culture to feel remarkably close. When early Egyptians developed imagery to express their religious beliefs, they drew deeply from the natural world. Domestic cats were plentiful in ancient times, inhabiting temples, granaries, and households to protect food supplies and prevent the spread of disease. 

The goddess Bastet was initially depicted as a lioness, a fierce and powerful protector of the king. In later dynasties she was associated with domestic cats and considered to be the daughter of the sun god, Re, embodying both strength and nurturing protection. 

To honor the goddess Bastet, mummified cats were sometimes buried in wood or bronze coffins or in boxes topped with images of cats. This bronze example, probably too small to have served as the receptacle for a cat or kitten mummy, likely adorned a coffin for a sacred animal. Two tenons extending the base of the bronze indicate that it was attached to another object. The beautifully proportioned and contoured figure has a naturalistic and attentive posture with ears upraised and tail gracefully curved around the front paws. This pose is readily identifiable by anyone who has observed contemporary cats. Both ears have been pierced, presumably for small gold circular earrings. The incised collar shows several rows of beads bound at the back of the neck with a wadjet eye pendant on the chest, an emblem of the god Horus, symbolic of health or “wellness.”

This bronze cat has a well documented history and was likely acquired by an English traveler to Egypt in the mid-19th century and later held in several German collections. Longtime collector Hans Cohn and his wife Varya had a particular interest in finely crafted works of ancient art and generously donated the sculpture to LACMA in 1992. In the David Geffen Galleries, this elegant figure will be displayed alongside other Egyptian bronze deities, serving as both a familiar and deeply symbolic presence overlooking Wilshire Boulevard.