Mission de Phénicie (Renan; Vogüé–Waddington–Duthoit continuation in Cyprus)

No holding of its own: the finds went to the Louvre. Vogüé himself (1870) put the Cypriot collection the Louvre owed to him, Duthoit and others at 700 to 800 pieces including life-size statues and large inscriptions; Tatton-Brown counts more than 1,000 sculptures from the 1862 and 1865 work. (1870)

Bonato 1999Tatton-Brown 2001

1. 1860–1861
   Renan's Mission de Phénicie in Syria and Lebanon, the French government mission of which the Cyprus work was a continuation. Sources differ on 1860 or 1861 for Gaillardot's participation.

   Ernest RenanCharles GaillardotCaubet 1993Bonato 1999Foucart-Borville 1985, p. 57

2. December 1861
   Renan, whose Phoenician work was interrupted (Caubet: for personal reasons), asks Vogüé to carry on in Cyprus. Vogüé writes to Renan on 17 December 1861 that he goes at his own initiative and will take provisional direction of Renan's work; Renan answers at length, putting the Cyprus budget at 8,000 francs, describing the task as exploration and not purchase, and saying he cannot count on the army as he did in Syria.

   ParisMelchior de VogüéErnest RenanBonato 1998Caubet 1993

3. 28 January 1862
   Vogüé, Waddington and Duthoit land at Larnaca. Duthoit stays until 1 June 1862, exploring the island first with Vogüé and Waddington and then digging alone near Athienou and at Dhali.

   LarnacaMelchior de VogüéHenry William WaddingtonEdmond DuthoitBonato 1998Bonato 1999

4. March 1862
   Duthoit, with about a hundred workmen, finds only shapeless foundations at Golgoi, turns to Ayios Photios and Malloura (where villagers said the heads Vogüé had bought came from) and by 23 March reports 20 to 30 heads of all periods, three mutilated seated statues on rams, small cattle figures and an altar, found in pits as deposits of heads, feet and other pieces.

   Athienou (Golgoi, Ayios Photios, Malloura)Edmond DuthoitBonato 1999

5. 1862
   Vogüé takes to Paris the Karyx epitaph from Golgoi (Louvre AM 3341), a Greek and Cypriot-syllabic digraphic inscription Caubet cites for its importance in deciphering the script.

   Melchior de VogüéCaubet 1993

6. 1862
   Vogüé buys from Grasset d'Orcet, with his own money, a funerary stele of a seated woman from Athienou (Hermary: late 1st century AD), which Paul Tardieu had acquired from a peasant; the Pasha was also bidding. Held up in customs for years, it reached France in 1866 and Vogüé gave it to the Louvre in 1880.

   AthienouMelchior de VogüéSosthène Grasset d'OrcetPaul TardieuBonato 1999

7. 1862
   Vogüé's own account of Cyprus expenses, February to June 1862: 6,900 francs (4,000 for digging, 500 for crates and shipping, 1,200 travel for Duthoit, Grasset and Mattei, 600 for Mattei as dragoman-accountant, 600 for presents). Duthoit later claimed 9,000 francs, so Vogüé appears to have part-financed the work.

   Melchior de VogüéEdmond DuthoitBonato 1999

8. 7 October 1863
   Longpérier writes to Vogüé about how the Louvre records the gift: Nieuwerkerke's report said 'mission de Vogüé et don de Vogüé', where it had been agreed to write 'fouilles de Vogüé et don de Vogüé'. Bonato reads Vogüé's wish, as a royalist, not to appear to have accepted a government mission.

   Adrien de LongpérierMelchior de VogüéBonato 1998

9. 1863–1870
   The sudden arrival of these thousands of pieces seems to have paralysed the Louvre's curator Longpérier, who did not inventory them as they came; provenance was lost and had to be reconstructed by Masson and Hermary.

   Adrien de LongpérierTatton-Brown 2001

10. 1865
    Duthoit returns to Cyprus alone. He draws the great stone vase on the Amathus acropolis, about 13 tonnes, later brought to the Louvre on a French warship (AO 22897). Tatton-Brown counts over a thousand sculptures, with inscriptions and terracottas, from Golgoi, Malloura, Paphos, Trapeza near Salamis and elsewhere reaching the Louvre from the 1862 and 1865 work.

    Edmond DuthoitCaubet 1993Tatton-Brown 2001

11. 8 March 1870
    Vogüé tells Clermont-Ganneau that the Louvre's Cypriot collection, 'the first formed and the most interesting that exists', 700 to 800 pieces including life-size statues and inscriptions of 2 square metres, cost the museum certainly under a thousand francs, counting his gifts, his purchases for them and what Duthoit let them have at cost.

    ParisMelchior de VogüéCharles Clermont-GanneauBonato 1999

• Karyx epitaph, digraphic Greek and Cypriot syllabic inscription

  Louvre AM 3341from Golgoi1862Caubet 1993

• Great stone vase of the Amathus acropolis, c. 13 tonnes

  Louvre AO 22897from Amathus acropolis1865Caubet 1993Tatton-Brown 2001

• Funerary stele of a seated woman, 'statue de Monsieur Grasset'

  from Athienouvia Melchior de Vogüé1880Bonato 1999