Ancient CyprusAncient Cyprus

Curator · Cataloguer

Alexander D. Savage

fl. 1879–1883 · United States

First assistant to Cesnola at the Metropolitan Museum who defended him against charges of restoration, found restored statues himself, left in December 1881 and testified for Feuardent.

Biography

Alexander D. Savage was the Metropolitan Museum official who first defended Luigi Palma di Cesnola against the charge that his Cypriot statues had been altered, and then gave evidence for the man who made it. As Cesnola's first assistant he was in charge of the Cypriot antiquities and the potteries, and he prepared the descriptive catalogues1,3. He wrote the museum's 1880 handbook Sculptures of the Cesnola Collection, which J. L. Myres called "brightly written"5. His letters are printed under the name A. Duncan Savage.

In 1880 the dealer Gaston Feuardent told him of an alteration to a statuette, and on Cesnola's instruction Savage wrote the reply of 21 May denying it4. Savage testified that Cesnola then ordered him to refuse sketching access to anyone working for Feuardent and to speak to no newspaper but the Evening Post. In July he wrote to Cesnola that he hoped Feuardent would be crushed; at trial he said he wrote this believing Cesnola's assurance that all restorations had been undone1.

In late August 1881, with Cesnola in Europe, Savage found at least eight restored statues, six of them on exhibition. He wrote to the museum's president, John Taylor Johnston, on 31 August that he would leave and not publish the cause. By his account Cesnola asked him to stay until the lawsuit was over, promising then to tell the truth. Savage left on 3 December 18811. Marangou adds that he gave the Times a list of sixteen restorations, mostly noses4. At the 1883-84 libel trial he testified for Feuardent1. The jury found for Cesnola on two of three counts and disagreed on the third9. His dates of birth and death are not recorded.

Life and work

  1. 1880
    Wrote the Metropolitan Museum's little guide Sculptures of the Cesnola Collection (Handbook No. 3), described by Myres as 'brightly written' and more instructive to students than the later inventory by I. H. Hall that superseded it in 1895.

    New YorkMyres 1914, p. xix

  2. 21 May 1880
    On Cesnola's instruction wrote to Feuardent (letter of 21 May 1880) answering his charge that a mirror had been carved onto the Aphrodite/Elpis statuette: said the mirror had always been there, that washing had made it look cleaner, and that it was 'utterly false' that the repairer had said anyone carved lines around it. Feuardent had first told Savage of the alteration.

    New YorkMarangou 2000, pp. 307-308

  3. July 1880
    Wrote to Cesnola at Richfield Springs (letter dated July 1880, read at the trial) about the publication in the New York Herald of Feuardent's Art Amateur charges, saying he detested Feuardent, was sorry the days of horsewhipping were past and hoped Feuardent would be crushed. At the trial he said he wrote it believing Cesnola had spoken truly: 'I did not think that he would make me his first assistant, put me in charge of the antiquities, and have me write guide books, and then conceal such restorations from me.'

    New YorkThe Feuardent-Cesnola Trial 1884, p. 56

  4. c. 1880
    Cesnola, writing from Richfield Springs in the summer of 1880, ordered Savage to refuse sketching access in the museum to anyone working for Feuardent and forbade him to talk to any city newspaper except The Evening Post, which was friendly to the museum; Savage obeyed. Cesnola also told Savage that the museum authorities had engaged a Mr. Ripley as 'special and secret journalist' and wrote giving him leave to talk with Ripley.

    New YorkThe Feuardent-Cesnola Trial 1884, p. 55

  5. c. 1880
    Preparing one of his catalogues, Savage noticed that a finger on the 'bearded Venus' was plaster and told Cesnola; by Cesnola's orders Balliard removed it. (Cox, in the same report, credits the finding of 'one finger too many' to Mr. Earl Shinn, whom Cox says told Cesnola.)

    New YorkThe Feuardent-Cesnola Trial 1884, p. 55

  6. 1880–1881
    Told the Evening Post, relying on Cesnola's assurance that all restorations had been undone after Balliard discovered them in 1880, that there were no restorations in the collection (the interview he later said was based on that assurance).

    New YorkThe Feuardent-Cesnola Trial 1884, p. 56

  7. 1881
    Published in the American Journal of Philology a note on a Greek inscription concerning Golgoi (the Roman-period stele signed by an artist Golgios, Met inv. 1381 per Counts, citing Myres 1914).

    Toumazou et al. 2011, p. 48 ; p. 75

  8. 29 November 1881
    Wrote to Cesnola recalling that on his return in the second week of October Cesnola had said he knew nothing of the alterations Savage had found, and warning that if Cesnola discharged the janitor (Alley) and his assistant (Henkel) for answering Savage's question 'Were there restorations and what are they?', 'everything, and more than I told you I had discovered, shall be revealed and published wide.' The two men were discharged nonetheless (the report says for telling Savage of the restorations they had witnessed).

    New YorkThe Feuardent-Cesnola Trial 1884, pp. 55-56

  9. October 1883 – January 1884
    Witness for Feuardent in Feuardent v. Cesnola (US Circuit Court, Judge Shipman). Called on the third day of the Hutchins evidence to identify the copious translations of Johannes Doell's memoir on the collection, to be used later; the Dec. 1883 supplement adds that he swore that the Golgoi sarcophagus re-carving was superintended by J. Q. A. Ward, later a member of the investigating committee. His main testimony (reported Jan. 1884) was that Cesnola had him prepare the pottery and catalogues, denounced Feuardent, ordered the plaster finger removed, said he had had no restorations made because Europe's museums had abandoned them and later admitted some, and claimed Feuardent had stolen a Cypriote vase, which a museum album photograph in Cesnola's hand showed to be the Berlin Museum's property. Under cross-examination he agreed he had written a July 1880 letter hoping Feuardent would be crushed.

    New YorkThe Feuardent-Cesnola Trial 1883, p. 23The Feuardent-Cesnola Trial (Editorial… 1883, p. 4bThe Feuardent-Cesnola Trial 1884, pp. 55-56

Connections

11 people
Luigi Palma di CesnolaGaston Louis FeuardentJohn Quincy Adams WardJohn Taylor JohnstonJohannes DoellWilliam Cowper PrimeCharles BalliardCharles HenkelDickson B. AlleyMr. RipleyEarl ShinnAlexander D. Savage
FieldworkDisputesScholarshipColleagues

Fieldwork & employment

Disputes & the law

Scholarship

Colleagues & contacts

Sources

  1. 1. (1884). “The Feuardent-Cesnola Trial”. The Art Amateur 10, 55-56. Online
  2. 2. (1883). “The Feuardent-Cesnola Trial”. The Art Amateur 10, 23-24. Online
  3. 3. (1883). “The Feuardent-Cesnola Trial (Editorial Supplement)”. The Art Amateur 10, 4a-4b. Online
  4. 4.A. G. Marangou (ed.) (2000). The Consul Luigi Palma di Cesnola 1832-1904: Life and Deeds.
  5. 5.J. L. Myres (1914). Handbook of the Cesnola Collection of Antiquities from Cyprus. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  6. 6.M. K. Toumazou (ed.), P. N. Kardulias (ed.), D. B. Counts (ed.) (2011). Crossroads and Boundaries: The Archaeology of Past and Present in the Malloura Valley, Cyprus.
  7. 7.A. D. Savage (1880). Sculptures of the Cesnola Collection (Handbook No. 3). New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  8. 8.A. D. Savage (1881). “A Greek Inscription Concerning Golgoi”. American Journal of Philology 2, 223-224.
  9. 9. (1884). “The End of the Feuardent-Cesnola Trial”. The Art Amateur 10, 96-97. Online