Letter from Schaeffer to the Director of the Lebanese Antiquities Service in Beirut on the transit of Cypriot objects through LebanonClaude Frédéric-Armand Schaeffer

Institut Français d'Archéologie, Beirut. 21 November 1949.

Dear Director of the Department of Antiquities of Lebanon, BEIRUT.

Dear Director,

I have the honour to ask you kindly to allow temporarily into Lebanon, for study purposes, at the Institut Français d'Archéologie, the antiquities contained in three parcels deposited at the customs of the port of Beirut by me, on 21 November on my arrival aboard the IONIA, from Limassol (Cyprus).

These antiquities come from my excavations at Enkomi in Cyprus (campaign of September to November 1949). They must be studied, drawn and photographed at the Institut Français d'Archéologie in Beirut. They will be returned before 27 February 1950 to the Department of Antiquities of Cyprus, with the exception of a few which need repairs and which will be sent to the Musée du Louvre, in Paris.

None of these antiquities is intended to remain in Lebanon. It is therefore a transit.

In support of my request, I enclose: a) an inventory of the antiquities in question, b) a temporary export licence signed and sealed by the Director of Antiquities of Cyprus, dated 19 November 1949.

I ask you to return this last document to me later, and to accept, Sir, the expression of my high consideration.