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Handwritten annotation top left, pencil: Cyprus / Feb 1947 / Cleaning.
[printed: Le Castel Blanc, 14 Rue Turgot, St.Germain-en-Laye,]
4 May 1948
My dear friend,
I was not able to come to the official inauguration yesterday morning and I regret having missed an opportunity to see you. I went there in the afternoon with Dussaud and we were happy to see again all these fine well-arranged objects, so long inaccessible.
Parrot, to whom I handed about a month ago the deposit of bronze objects found last year at Enkomi for cleaning, does not dare to have this work carried out. I spoke to you of this find on my return in January from my excavation campaign, and since half of this group will go to the excavator's share, and so to the Louvre, I asked you whether your department could take charge of cleaning this group. There is moreover not much to do, the bronzes are in excellent condition, it is only necessary to remove the excess patina and glue together two pieces of a sort of sceptre. You then told me that in principle you agreed and that I should speak to Parrot about it. I understand Parrot's hesitations at not wishing to take on the responsibility for objects which are not yet definitively assigned to the Louvre collections, and on the other hand, the costs of this work could weigh on his budget. I promised him I would speak to you again about this detail, and I ask you to decide whether Parrot's department can take charge of the work in question, or whether I should have it done by the Museum of Nicosia, to which I will hand over the objects for division on my return to Cyprus this autumn.
It is quite understood that if Parrot's department takes charge of this work, this will be without any responsibility on the part of that department. The work will in short be carried out at the risk and peril of the Department of Antiquities of Cyprus, which entrusted me with the treasure, and of my own responsibility as excavator.
Handwritten: signature: C. F.-A. Schaeffer, with flourish
Mr G. Salles, Director of the Musées de France, Palais du Louvre, Paris 1st.
65 figures hard to readstruck struck outadded written in above” jug ditto, and what it repeatsword reading not certain