Ancient CyprusAncient Cyprus

Consul / diplomat · Excavator · Collector · Dealer

Luigi Palma di Cesnola

Emmanuele Pietro Paolo Maria Luigi Palma di Cesnola

1832–1904 · Italy, United States

US consul at Larnaca who dug and bought across Cyprus in 1866-76, sold two collections to the Metropolitan Museum and, as its director, was sued for libel by Gaston Feuardent.

Luigi Palma di Cesnola

Biography

The Metropolitan Museum of Art decided to buy its first Cypriot collection in the last days of 1872, after the trustee William T. Blodgett visited an exhibition of the antiquities that Gaston Feuardent had organised in London2. They belonged to Luigi Palma di Cesnola, the United States consul at Larnaca, who sold the museum a second collection in 1876 and was its director from 1879 until his death2. Feuardent, who had charged the museum with tampering with its sculptures, later sued him for libel1,17.

Cesnola was born in 1832 at Rivarolo Canavese in Piedmont and joined the Piedmontese army as a volunteer at fifteen. He left it as a lieutenant in 1854 by "voluntary dismissal" and served in the Crimea as aide-de-camp to a general with the Anglo-Turkish forces1. He went to the United States in 18582 and in the Civil War was colonel of the Fourth New York Cavalry and spent months in Libby Prison before his release in 18641. Olivier Masson writes that he left the army as a colonel or brigadier-general, and that "general" was a title he claimed Lincoln had given him2; Marangou says it was a brevet of 18651. He became a United States citizen on 16 August 18651 and reached Larnaca in the last days of that year2.

Digging from Larnaca

The consulate paid $1,000 a year, and by October 1866 Cesnola was asking his friend and creditor Hiram Hitchcock in New York to find him a posting in a European capital1. Antiquities kept him at Larnaca. He began digging in 1866 at Dali, Alambra and Potamia, "in a mere amateur way" by his own account1. Nicholas Stanley-Price describes his method as buying casual finds and paying villagers to dig, and quotes his admission that the excavations were "perhaps not conducted in all their details according to the usual manner"18. A colossal head found at Golgoi, near Athienou, on 6 March 1870 made that site the centre of his work2.

An Ottoman decree of 1869 forbade the export of finds from excavations, coins excepted. Stanley-Price says Cesnola's mass exports challenged it directly, and that the American minister in Constantinople, George Henry Boker, obtained a firman for his digging and helped him export18. In 1871 the Ottoman authorities stopped excavation and export altogether1. Cesnola later told Hitchcock that, such was his influence with the Turks, he had been digging without showing the governor the firman he held1.

Two collections for New York

Cesnola sold or gave away a great deal before New York. Carl Friederichs bought for the Berlin museums in the autumn of 1869. An auction at the Hôtel Drouot in Paris on 25 and 26 March 1870, with a catalogue by W. Froehner, sent pieces to the Louvre, Marseille and the collector Louis De Clercq. Sotheby's sold more in London in January and May 1871; at the second sale Colonel Fox, later Pitt Rivers, bought nine votive figures labelled as from Golgoi, now in the Pitt Rivers Museum at Oxford (1884.56/91-99)2. Smaller lots, some of them gifts, went to Turin, Boston, Munich and Istanbul2.

About 6,000 items reached London in the autumn of 1872 and were received by the London branch of Rollin & Feuardent, whose young representative Gaston Feuardent put them on show1,2. John Taylor Johnston, the museum's president, advanced the money for the purchase, which became final in May 18741,2.

He returned to Larnaca in the autumn of 1873, with his brother Alessandro Palma di Cesnola as chief digger2. Until June 1876 he dug at Salamis, Amathus, Kourion and Soli and in the Karpas, and bought heavily from others1,2. By his own count the second collection held 7,160 objects1. The Metropolitan decided to buy it in November 1876, and Cesnola became its Secretary in May 18772. Anna Marangou writes that New York offered $60,000 for the whole collection together with the post1. In a letter of December 1876 Cesnola told Heinrich Schliemann that his entire discoveries were going to the New York museum, which had bought them for $66,000, exclusive of expenses1.

The Curium treasure

Cesnola presented his gold from Curium as a rival to Schliemann's finds, telling Hitchcock that it surpassed them "by a great deal"1. In Cyprus: Its Ancient Cities, Tombs, and Temples (1877) he described four chambers beneath a mosaic pavement near the church of Agios Ermogenis, with a gold room, a silver room and armlets naming Eteandros, king of Paphos, and wrote of the gold room that "every object was discovered in my presence"1. Marangou concludes that no such chambers existed and that the objects were bought from local diggers across the island1.

The workmen's accounts differ from his and from each other. A deposition by his foreman Ioannis Koutsocheris before the Greek consul describes a tomb of four rooms opened in 1875 with Cesnola present1. The other foreman, Christofis Christodoulou, stated in an affidavit published in 1885 and addressed to Max Ohnefalsch-Richter that he had himself found the richest tomb, in the plain and not under the mosaic, with three chambers, and that Cesnola was absent for nearly all the work1. In the Cyprus Herald of 6 October 1883 Ohnefalsch-Richter had written that no honest man could any longer believe in the treasure1. The report that William James Stillman made to the American Numismatic and Archaeological Society on 28 March 1885 held that the treasure contained rare and important objects but that they came from tombs scattered around Kourion1. In 1971 T. B. Mitford wrote that "the suspicion persists" that Cesnola obtained it by "clandestine exploitation of some royal cemetery"4.

Feuardent against Cesnola

Cesnola was appointed the museum's director on 15 May 1879, after persuading the trustees that the post should be for life1. In August 1880 the Art Amateur printed Feuardent's article "Tampering with Antiquities", which charged that a small statuette of Elpis had been turned into an Aphrodite by carving a mirror into her left hand1. Cesnola called the charges "maliciously made and absolutely without foundation in fact" and asked the trustees to investigate. A committee under F. A. P. Barnard found "each and all of the charges" without foundation17. Feuardent's action for libel was entered in May 1881, claiming $5,000 on each of five causes17. Clarence Cook's pamphlet of 1882, published by Feuardent, argued that the statuary was largely unrelated fragments, repaired and painted1.

On Cesnola's petition, which said that Feuardent was an alien, the case went to the United States Circuit Court. It opened on 31 October 1883 before Judge Nathaniel Shipman, with Francis Bangs for Feuardent and Joseph H. Choate for Cesnola1,17. Cesnola testified for six days and agreed that he had "repaired" 1,200 to 1,300 stone pieces1. In an editorial that the Art Amateur reprinted, The Sun wrote that he had admitted that about a third of the statues had pieces stuck back on under a wash, and that he had since found several false noses17.

The two accounts of the verdict differ. Marangou writes that after 28 hours the jury returned a complete vindication, rejecting all of Feuardent's accusations as "maliciously made and totally without foundation"1. The Art Amateur, which had published Feuardent's article, reported that the jury found for Cesnola on two of the three counts put to it and disagreed on the third, whether Feuardent was owed damages for Cesnola's accusation that he had overcharged for cartage in London and, as his agent, had failed to make proper efforts to sell the collection; it added that the judge had left the archaeological questions out of his charge17. Stillman's report returned to those questions and found the collection impaired by "a deplorable recklessness of attribution as to the localities of discovery" and by coatings that hid the original surfaces of important pieces1.

Cesnola remained director until his death in November 19042. About 5,000 duplicates went to Leland Stanford in 1896, and in March and April 1928 the museum sold 965 lots of duplicates at the Anderson Galleries in New York, where the circus owner John Ringling was the most frequent buyer2. The large sculptures, the representative vases, the gold and silver and the inscriptions stayed in New York2.

Life and work

  1. 29 July 1832
    Born at Rivarolo Canavese, second of four sons of Count Luigi Maurizio Palma di Cesnola and Countess Eugenia Ricca di Castelvecchio

    Rivarolo CanaveseMarangou 2000, p. 147Marangou 2000, p. 367

  2. 9 September 1847
    Left school and joined the Fourth Infantry Regiment of the Piedmontese army as a volunteer aged fifteen; later Royal Military Academy at Cherasco

    PiedmontMarangou 2000, pp. 147-148

  3. October 1854
    Promoted lieutenant in September 1854, then within a month allowed to accept 'voluntary dismissal' after an episode whose details Marangou says remain obscure; went on to serve as aide-de-camp to General Ansaldi with the Anglo-Turkish forces in the Crimean War

    PiedmontMarangou 2000, p. 148

  4. c. 1858
    Emigrated to New York; Marangou thinks 1858 more likely than the 1860 he gave

    New YorkMarangou 2000, p. 149Masson 1996

  5. 11 June 1861
    Married Mary Jennings Reid

    New YorkMarangou 2000, p. 151

  6. 1862
    Commissioned colonel of the Fourth New York Cavalry; taken prisoner and held at Libby Prison, Richmond, in 1863; released 1864

    United StatesMarangou 2000, p. 152Marangou 2000, p. 367

  7. 16 August 1865
    Naturalised as a United States citizen in the Superior Court of the City of New York (occupation given as 'soldier')

    New YorkMarangou 2000, pp. 154-155

  8. 1865
    Appointed US Consul in Cyprus (notified by State Department despatch of 8 May 1865, per his reply of 13 August 1865; supported by senators Morgan and Harris)

    WashingtonMarangou 2000, pp. 154-155

  9. 27 December 1865
    Arrived at Larnaca (Marangou's narrative says Christmas Day; her chronology says 24 December) and took over the consulate, entering on duty on 27 December

    LarnacaMarangou 2000, pp. 157-158Marangou 2000, p. 367

  10. 1866
    First excavations at Dali, Alambra and Potamia, begun, in his words, 'in a mere amateur way'

    DaliMarangou 2000, p. 164Marangou 2000, p. 367

  11. 1867
    Hiram and Mary Hitchcock visited Cyprus; Cesnola then went to Italy after his mother's death

    Cyprus; RivaroloMarangou 2000, p. 167

  12. 15 August 1868
    First report to the State Department on antiquities found in the island

    LarnacaMarangou 2000, p. 168Marangou 2000, p. 367

  13. November 1868
    Wrote to Hitchcock that he had arranged for New York missionaries at Beirut to print a catalogue of his small collection for travellers; a brochure 'Catalogue of Collection of General Cesnola For Sale to suit Amateurs, Cyprus, 1869' is also reported (Masson has seen neither)

    LarnacaMasson 1996

  14. 1868
    Gift of Cypriot pottery to the newly founded American University of Beirut (Karageorghis's communication to Masson, citing Wolley's 1921 museum guide; confirmed by the museum curator)

    BeirutMasson 1996

  15. 1869–1870
    Excavated at Kouklia (Palaipaphos) in 1869, returning in 1870 with Carl Friederichs of the Berlin Museums; later claimed to have bought the temple area

    KoukliaMarangou 2000, p. 248

  16. 1869
    Before 1870 he also sent a lot to Rollin et Feuardent in Paris, made a first gift to Turin, and made proposals to London and Berlin; he hoped to sell his 'Phoenician Museum' to the New York Historical Society (Masson: 'il semble')

    ParisMasson 1996

  17. October–December 1869
    Carl Friederichs, sent to Cyprus for the Berlin museums with the help of George Bancroft, bought stone objects, bronzes, terracottas, engraved gems and glass for Berlin in autumn 1869; Masson says part of the same purchase, a selection of vases, terracottas and limestone statuettes procured by 'C. Friederichs, Berlin', went to the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

    LarnacaMasson 1996

  18. 6 March 1870
    Discovery of the colossal head at Agios Photios (Golgoi/Athienou) and excavation there

    AthienouMarangou 2000, p. 367Marangou 2000, p. 216

  19. 25 March 1870 – 26 March 1870
    Sale of Cypriot antiquities at Paris, catalogue preface by Froehner; Louvre, Autun, Saint-Germain, Marseilles, Orleans and private collectors (including Louis de Clercq) bought

    ParisMarangou 2000, pp. 186-187

  20. 1870
    Offered the collection to the Hermitage (letters to Gedeonov from 2 January 1870; Johannes Doell catalogued it in Larnaca from June); Russia declined to buy en bloc

    LarnacaMarangou 2000, pp. 191-198

  21. 25 March 1870 – 26 March 1870
    Hotel Drouot sale, catalogue by Froehner ('Antiquités chypriotes provenant de fouilles faites en 1868 par M. Cesnola', expert H. Hoffmann). Buyers: Louvre (inventory N 3519-3532, including an inscribed base from Salamis, a few sculptures, small terracottas), Saint-Germain-en-Laye (nos 15132-15169, bought by Alexandre Bertrand), about forty pieces for Marseille (Musee Borely), single pieces in Autun and Orleans, Louis De Clercq and dealers. A second Paris sale planned for 1871 was prevented by the war

    ParisMasson 1996

  22. June 1870
    A lot of antiquities reached Turin after the Golgoi finds and was given to the Academy of Sciences (Accademia delle Scienze), then passed to the Museo di Antichita; published by F. G. Lo Porto in 1986. (A smaller lot was given in 1877 by his brother Alessandro, not by Luigi.)

    TurinMasson 1996

  23. June–December 1870
    Hermitage negotiation: Johannes Doell, sent by the Hermitage, catalogued the collection at Larnaca in summer 1870 (Die Sammlung Cesnola); Marangou says Cesnola told him he valued it at 270,000-400,000 francs and settled on 300,000. Masson says the talks ended negatively by the end of 1870. No sale to Russia took place

    LarnacaMarangou 2000, p. 195Masson 1996

  24. 9 January 1871
    First Sotheby's sale of Cesnola antiquities in London; second sale 1 May 1871

    LondonMarangou 2000, pp. 187-188

  25. 1871
    Ottoman authorities banned further excavation and export; Cesnola, in his own account, asked for a warship to remove his collection and the State Department agreed to send one

    CyprusMarangou 2000, pp. 204-208

  26. 9 January 1871 – 10 January 1871
    First Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge sale, 13 Wellington Street, Strand: 'Catalogue of a very interesting collection of early Greek antiquities ... discovered in the Island of Cyprus ... by General de Cesnola', with another property 'formed by an amateur'

    LondonMasson 1996

  27. 1 May 1871
    Second Sotheby sale ('Catalogue of some most select antiquities ...'). Named buyers include W. Loftie, Lord Ranelagh, General Fox (numismatist), Colonel Fox (Pitt Rivers), Feuardent and Hoffmann. Pitt Rivers bought lot 142 (nine Golgoi ex-votos, now Pitt Rivers Museum 1884.56/91-99) and lot 48 (vase with bull, man and bird, 1884.38/2803); the British Museum bought through Rollin and Feuardent a small lot, 1871.7-8,1-6; 'Hall Esq.' bought lot 47 (BM 1928.1-17.25 from Mrs W. E. Hall); Feuardent bought lot 31 (amphora with a human face, now Saint-Germain 22.231 after Rollin and Feuardent, 1874)

    LondonMasson 1996

  28. c. 1871
    Gift of a larger series to Hiram Hitchcock ('probably 1871', Masson); after Mrs Hitchcock's bequest to Dartmouth College the objects remained at Hanover. Smaller gifts: vases to the Rev. Joseph Owens (now National Museum, Edinburgh)

    Hanover, NHMasson 1996

  29. 1871–1872
    Gifts or sales named by J. T. Johnston (1878) and traced by Masson: Istanbul (large conciliatory gifts to the Ottoman museum), the Archaeological Society of Athens (vases, now National Museum Athens, e.g. NM 76), Munich (about 90 pieces, Brunn's March 1876 inventory 2029-2120), Perugia (Late Bronze Age vases and a Temple boy), the South Kensington Museum, the Smithsonian (no trace found by Masson), Fitzwilliam (glass, GR.1.1876 series)

    Masson 1996

  30. September–December 1872
    Exhibited the first collection at 61 Great Russell Street, London, through Rollin & Feuardent; visited by J. S. Morgan and W. T. Blodgett of the Metropolitan Museum's circle in September; Newton reviewed it in The Academy

    LondonMarangou 2000, pp. 229-231

  31. December 1872
    Decision that the first collection be bought for the new Metropolitan Museum (the British Museum had offered 10,000 pounds for the Golgoi sculptures and inscriptions, refused because Cesnola insisted on selling en bloc; John Taylor Johnston offered 60,000 dollars, which he advanced personally); shipped in 275 chests and exhibited at the Douglas Mansion in 1873

    London; New YorkMarangou 2000, p. 227Marangou 2000, p. 233Marangou 2000, pp. 237-242

  32. May 1872
    Boston Museum of Fine Arts acquired and registered a series of Cypriot objects from Cesnola in May 1872: vases 72.1-133, terracottas 72.134-203 and further series, later published in part (vases, bronzes, sculptures)

    BostonMasson 1996

  33. December 1872
    Decision of the Metropolitan Museum to buy the first collection (Masson: end of 1872, Blodgett's visit decisive). John Taylor Johnston advanced the funds; Marangou: Johnston offered $60,000. Purchase became definitive only in May 1874, the origin of the '74' in accession numbers. Marangou quotes the museum's report that the collection was 'purchased by the President and deposited ... as a loan'

    New YorkMasson 1996Marangou 2000

  34. January–August 1873
    In New York arranging the collection; arranged for brother Alessandro to be appointed US consular agent at Paphos (approved within two days); obtained a memorandum that his future finds would belong to the museum, with up to 5,000 dollars a year for digging; sailed back to Cyprus with his family

    New YorkMarangou 2000, pp. 239-241

  35. 7 March 1873
    Began unpacking and arranging the collection at the Douglas Mansion, New York; before returning to Cyprus obtained a memorandum that all his future discoveries would belong to the Museum, with up to $5,000 a year for digs and expenses (his salary to depend on the value of the finds, set by the Museum)

    New YorkMarangou 2000, pp. 240-241

  36. 1874
    After the 1873 financial crisis suspended the museum contract, dug simultaneously at Salamis, Amathus, Kourion, Soli and in the Karpas, buying heavily from others as well

    CyprusMarangou 2000, p. 246Marangou 2000, p. 367

  37. 17 September 1874
    By his own account discovered 'the city of Curium' (Kourion) and the temple of Apollo Hylates

    KourionMarangou 2000, p. 257

  38. 1875
    Amathus: great sarcophagus found early in the year; Ruskin paid for further digging; 143 boxes sent to New York on the 'Madagascar' in March; 'Treasure of Curium' announced from summer

    Amathus; KourionMarangou 2000, pp. 250-256Marangou 2000, p. 261

  39. c. 1875
    Gifts to John Ruskin in thanks for 1,000 pounds he gave about 1874: a cup from Amathus (1875; BM WA Dept 123053, reached the British Museum 1931) and a shield from the same place (BM 1972); sculptures and heads later given by R. G. Collingwood to the Ashmolean (1933 or 1938, Masson gives both)

    Masson 1996

  40. 1875–1904
    NamedMitford (1971, 3-4) writes that 'the suspicion persists' that Cesnola acquired the Kourion treasure through 'a long and (it may be) clandestine exploitation of some royal cemetery, very probably at Kourion but possibly at Old Paphos', and that Cesnola 'was at some pains to provide this treasure with ... a good home'. Mitford's suspicion as stated, attributed to him; not a finding.

    Mitford 1971, pp. 3-4

  41. November 1876
    After offering the second collection (7,161 items; Curium finds) to the Metropolitan, the British Museum (10,000 pounds offered, three days to accept) and the Louvre, sold it to the Metropolitan for 60,000 dollars, with the post of Secretary

    London; New YorkMarangou 2000, pp. 273-281

  42. 1876
    Left Cyprus in autumn 1876; learned in London that the consulate had been abolished

    Larnaca; LondonMarangou 2000, p. 277Marangou 2000, p. 367

  43. July–September 1876
    British Museum purchase direct from Cesnola through Samuel Birch: BM 1876.9-9,1-127 (over eighty vases of various periods, some terracottas, miscellaneous); Cesnola's letters to Birch of July-August 1876 speak of a 'collection of vases'; the Trustees paid 300 pounds, split into tranches of 213 and 87 pounds

    LondonMasson 1996

  44. July–November 1876
    Second collection offered (Marangou: 7,160/7,161 objects, 2 years' digging, 9,000 pounds expenses): first at 15,000 pounds, then the whole at 20,000 pounds (Curium collection 12,000, the rest with three sarcophagi 8,000). The British Museum Trustees authorised up to 10,000 pounds for the Curium group; the Metropolitan telegram offered $60,000 gold half in cash plus arranging the collection in the Park museum, which Marangou says Cesnola first rejected; he then accepted $60,000 and the Secretary's post

    LondonMarangou 2000, pp. 274-281

  45. November 1876
    Purchase of the second collection by the Metropolitan. The Curium finds (except the gold) went from London to New York on the 'Danemark'; the British Museum restored the Curium bronzes for about $1,000 before they left. The two collections were registered together as 'The Cesnola Collection, purchased by subscription, 1874-1876', 74.51.0001 to 74.51.6714 (plus a small group 74.57.)

    New YorkMasson 1996Marangou 2000, p. 281

  46. 1877
    Cyprus: Its Ancient Cities, Tombs, and Temples published by John Murray, London (New York edition 1878, German edition 1879); the family left London for New York on 26 April 1877

    LondonMarangou 2000, pp. 276-277Marangou 2000, p. 283Marangou 2000, p. 367

  47. 15 May 1879
    Appointed first Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, for life on his terms

    New YorkMarangou 2000, p. 292Marangou 2000, p. 367

  48. 30 March 1880
    Opening of the new Museum building in Central Park with the Cesnola Collection as its focal point

    New YorkMarangou 2000, p. 293Marangou 2000, p. 367

  49. August 1880
    Feuardent's article 'Tampering with Antiquities' in the Art Amateur opened the public dispute over restorations in the Cesnola Collection

    New YorkMarangou 2000, p. 304

  50. 1880–1882
    AccusedFeuardent (Art Amateur, August 1880, and New York Times letters) charged that statues in the Cesnola Collection had been altered, composed of unrelated fragments and misattributed (the case starting with a small statuette of Elpis turned into an Aphrodite); Clarence Cook's pamphlet 'Transformations and Migrations of certain statues of the Cesnola Collection' (1882) repeated and extended this. A museum committee under F. A. P. Barnard reported for Cesnola in 1881; the Trustees resolved on 21 February 1881 that the charges were false; his assistant A. D. Savage resigned in 1882 when he refused to reveal restorations and gave the New York Times a list of sixteen restorations, most of them plastic noses. These are the charges as Marangou reports them, with the Trustees' response.

    Marangou 2000, pp. 304-315Marangou 2000, p. 311Marangou 2000, p. 324

  51. December 1883 – February 1884
    Libel action Feuardent v. Cesnola tried before Judge Nathaniel Shipman; the jury found for Cesnola

    New YorkMarangou 2000, pp. 323-328

  52. 1883–1884
    Civil suitLibel action brought by the dealer Gaston Feuardent, served on Cesnola in 1881 and tried at New York before Judge Nathaniel Shipman over nine and a half weeks from late 1883 into 1884 (Cesnola defended by the museum's lawyers headed by Joseph H. Choate; Feuardent's counsel Francis Bangs). The jury, after a day and night of deliberation, returned a verdict for Cesnola: Marangou writes that it rejected Feuardent's accusations 'as being maliciously made and totally without foundation', and the suit ended. This is a jury verdict, not a finding of fact about the objects.

    Marangou 2000, pp. 323-328

  53. 1883–1885
    AccusedMax Ohnefalsch-Richter's article in the Cyprus Herald of 6 October 1883 called the 'Treasure of Curium' and the Golgoi temple inventions; Cesnola instructed George Menardos to find a lawyer for a libel action in Cyprus (the lawyer Collyre took it on); Marangou does not report an outcome. In 1885 William J. Stillman's report to the American Numismatic and Archaeological Society (28 March 1885) found the collection of real value but criticised 'recklessness of attribution', concealed repairs and, for the Curium Treasure, concluded the objects came from tombs scattered round Kourion and not from the 'treasure chambers' of Cesnola's narrative; Marangou calls it a vindication of Feuardent. A society report, not a court ruling.

    Marangou 2000, pp. 335-340Marangou 2000, p. 328

  54. 1896
    Met sold Leland Stanford 'about 5,000 duplicates of the Cesnola Collection' (Cesnola still director); they went to the Stanford University Museum and many were destroyed or damaged in the 1906 earthquake

    New YorkMasson 1996

  55. 18 November 1904
    Died in New York after falling ill at a veterans' dinner

    New YorkMarangou 2000, pp. 345-346Marangou 2000, p. 367

  56. 1911
    Exchange of duplicates between the Metropolitan and the Ashmolean Museum: vases

    New YorkMasson 1996

  57. 1914
    Myres, Handbook of the Cesnola Collection of Antiquities from Cyprus (New York): numbered 1-5985, a guide not a catalogue (Masson: 'hypercritical' on findspots; Atlas I-III 1885-1903 is the other record). Not the same as the accession numbers 74.51.0001-6714

    New YorkMasson 1996King 1916, pp. 66-68

  58. 1925–1927
    Private sales of Cesnola duplicates by the Metropolitan in 1925, 1926 and 1927 (detail in the museum archive); the Nicholson Museum, Sydney, bought 23 Cypriot objects (glass, sculpture, vases, terracottas) in 1927 for $342, charged $290.70 (about 60 pounds) after a 15% public-institution discount, after an exchange with Gisela Richter; Nicholson accessioned them as NM48.270-278 and others

    New YorkMasson 1996Barker & Merrillees 2017, pp. 51-71

  59. 30 March 1928 – April 1928
    Anderson Galleries sale no. 2253, 'Cypriote & Classical Antiquities: Duplicates of the Cesnola & other collections', sold by order of the Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum (president R. W. de Forest); two catalogues, 965 lots in all. De Forest's letter says the Trustees preferred to disperse stored duplicates rather than give them to other museums. Masson's annotated copy shows John Ringling as the most frequent buyer (13 Temple boys, Pyla statuettes ex R. H. Lang, many vases) and F. W. Collins (five Temple boys, to Roanoke)

    New YorkGalleries 1928Masson 1996

Connections

206 people
Robert Hamilton LangWilhelm FroehnerCharles NewtonGaston Louis FeuardentThomas Backhouse SandwithHenri HoffmannNapoléon Antoine Aimé Pér…Dominique Albert Edouard …Samuel BirchLouis Constantin Henri Fr…Louis CastanHiram HitchcockAlessandro (Alexander) Pa…Demetrios PieridesAlexander D. SavageCharles BalliardTheocharis KoutsocherisCharles HenkelMax Ohnefalsch-RichterDavid George HogarthJohn William WilliamsonSalomon ReinachDickson B. AlleyFrancis BangsRiccardo ColucciVassos KarageorghisOlivier MassonJohn Linton MyresMelchior de VogüéAntoine HermaryGeorges Colonna CeccaldiErnest RenanJoan R. MertensSilvana Di PaoloDiana BuitronWilhelm DeeckeAlexander Stuart MurrayErnest Arthur GardnerWilliam Cowper PrimeHenry William WaddingtonLuigi Palma di Cesnola
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Sales, gifts & bequests

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Also: Robert Hamilton Lang, Robert Hoe, John Taylor Johnston, Theodore Peristianis, John Ruskin, Giancarlo Conestabile della Staffa, Thomas Backhouse Sandwith, George Menardos, Samuel Birch, Joseph H. Choate, William Collyer, Augustus Wollaston Franks, Carl Anton Milani, Hasan (Hasen) of Dali, Henri Hoffmann, Joseph Owens, Wilhelm Froehner.

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Also: Papa Petro, Rada y Delgado, Reginald Stuart Poole, Robert Hamilton Lang, V. Delbergue-Cormont, William Cowper Prime, Ariodante Fabretti, Gaston Louis Feuardent, W. H. Seward, Charles Newton, J. S. Morgan, Russell Sturgis, Stephen Thompson, William T. Blodgett, Alessandro (Alexander) Palma di Cesnola, Nicolaos Vondiziano, Rev. Mr. Leeds, Pach, Franz von Löher, George Henry Boker, Giancarlo Conestabile della Staffa, Isaac Holister Hall, Justus Siegismund, Osman Aga, F. Ravaisson, George Smith, John Murray, S. W. Crawford, Alexander Stuart Murray, C. W. King, Demetrios Pierides, W. Helbig, Georges Perrot, Charles Patrick Daly, Frederick A. P. Barnard, John Quincy Adams Ward, George Gibson, N. P. Tsikinis, Henri de Morgan, Mr. Stickney, Nathaniel Shipman, Weston, G. R. Halm, Ferdinand Dümmler, Max Ohnefalsch-Richter, William James Stillman, Vicomte Eugène de Castillon de Saint-Victor, David George Hogarth, Ernest Arthur Gardner, Louis Dyer, M. R. James, Leland Stanford, Yiorgos Frangoudes, Ieronymos K. Peristianis, Calvin Tomkins, Elizabeth McFadden, Haris Yiakoumis, Anna G. Marangou, Alexander D. Savage, Athanasios A. Sakellarios, Augustus J. Johnson, Dominique Albert Edouard Tiburce Colonna-Ceccaldi, Edward Joy Morris, Emily Howe Hitchcock, Ernst Curtius, Felix-Bienaime Feuardent, Georges Colonna Ceccaldi, Hiram Hitchcock, Janet Daniels Schenck, John H. Goodenow, John Ruskin, John Taylor Johnston, Lennon, McVeah, Mr. Rhinelander (Metropolitan Museum trustee), Roswell Dwight Hitchcock, Stanley Moss, Thomas Backhouse Sandwith.

Objects

  • Limestone sarcophagus (the Amathus sarcophagus), Cypro-Archaic

    From AmathusMetropolitan Museum of Art, New York 74.51.24531875Metropolitan Museum of Art…Marangou 2000

  • Limestone statue of a male votary, first half of 5th c. BCE

    Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 74.51.24581872–1876Metropolitan Museum of Art…

  • Limestone votary, bearded, with wreath (179 cm), Cypro-Classical

    Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 74.51.24621872–1876Metropolitan Museum of Art…

  • Marble anthropoid sarcophagus, Graeco-Phoenician

    Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 74.51.24541872–1876Metropolitan Museum of Art…

  • Four-handled krater with lid (Euboean Geometric, the Cesnola Painter), 130.8 cm

    Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 74.51.9651872–1876Metropolitan Museum of Art…

  • Pair of gold bracelets, Cypriot, 6th-5th c. BCE

    Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 74.51.3554-35551872–1876Metropolitan Museum of Art…

  • Syllabic inscription from Golgoi (ICS 261)

    From GolgoiMetropolitan Museum of Art, New York 74.51.23171870–1872Masson 1996

  • Nine small ex-voto statuettes labelled 'Ruins Golgoi temple 1865'

    From GolgoiPitt Rivers Museum, Oxford 1884.56/91-99May 1871Masson 1996

  • Small amphora with a human face (VI c. BCE), 20 cm

    Musee d'Archeologie nationale, Saint-Germain-en-Laye 22.2311874Masson 1996

  • Series of antiquities from the Paris sale, including an inscribed base from Salamis

    From SalamisMusee du Louvre, Paris Inventory N 3519-3532March 1870Masson 1996

  • About forty objects bought at the 1870 Paris sale

    Musee Borely, Marseille numbers in the 1870 sale catalogue, noted by Froehner for the 1897 Marseille catalogueMarch 1870Masson 1996

  • Small lot of terracottas bought through Rollin and Feuardent

    British Museum, London 1871.7-8,1-6July–August 1871Masson 1996

  • Series of vases (over 80), terracottas and miscellaneous pieces, bought direct from Cesnola through Birch

    From CyprusBritish Museum, London 1876.9-9,1-127September 1876Masson 1996

  • Cup from Amathus (1875) given to Ruskin; reached the BM 1931. A shield from Amathus reached the BM in 1972

    From AmathusBritish Museum, London WA Dept 1230531931Masson 1996

  • Cypriot vases, terracottas, sculpture (Cesnola gifts to Berlin from the 1869 purchase)

    From CyprusStaatliche Museen zu Berlin, Antikensammlung vases catalogued by Furtwangler; accession numbers not seen1869Masson 1996

  • Vases, terracottas and limestone statuettes

    From CyprusKunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna not seen1869Masson 1996

  • Cypriot antiquities given to the Academy of Sciences, Turin, later the Museo di Antichita

    From Cyprus (Golgoi finds period)Museo di Antichita, Turin published Lo Porto 1986; numbers not seenJune 1870Masson 1996

  • Vases 72.1-133, terracottas 72.134-203, bronzes, sculpture

    From CyprusMuseum of Fine Arts, Boston 72.1-72.203 and later 72.xMay 1872Masson 1996

  • About 90 vases 'Cypern, Sammlung Cesnola'

    From CyprusStaatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich 2029-2120 (Brunn inventory March 1876)March 1876Masson 1996

  • Glass vessels 'formerly in the collection of L. Palma di Cesnola' and the 'Temple girl' statuette

    From CyprusFitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge GR.1.1876 (glass series); GR.1.1917 (statuette)1876Masson 1996

  • Vase with a woman's head (Idalion), ex Barre, Piot, Rollin, De Clercq no. 563

    From IdalionAshmolean Museum, Oxford 1974.4371974Masson 1996

  • Ex-Cesnola vases from an exchange with the Metropolitan

    Ashmolean Museum, Oxford not seen1911Masson 1996

  • About 5,000 'duplicates' of the Cesnola Collection

    From CyprusStanford University Museum not seen (terracotta catalogue 1964)1896Masson 1996

  • At least 13 Temple boys, Pyla statuettes ex R. H. Lang through Cesnola, many vases

    From Cyprus (Pyla for the Lang statuettes, per Masson)John and Mable Ringling Museum, Sarasota not seenMarch–April 1928Masson 1996

  • Five Temple boys (Roanoke, Virginia, first in the public library, then the Museum of Fine Arts)

    From CyprusRoanoke Museum of Fine Arts not seen1928Masson 1996

  • 23 Cypriot objects (glass, sculpture, vases, terracottas), e.g. Red Polished III amphora NM48.270, Red Polished II bowl NM48.271

    From CyprusNicholson Museum, University of Sydney NM48.270-278; NM47.348; NM64.467 (others)January 1927Barker & Merrillees 2017, pp. 51-71

  • Series of Cypriot objects given to Hiram Hitchcock

    From CyprusDartmouth College, Hanover not seenc. 1871Masson 1996

Discussed in documents

Also named in

14 documents

On Ancient Cyprus

40 pages

Sources

  1. 1.A. G. Marangou (ed.) (2000). The Consul Luigi Palma di Cesnola 1832-1904: Life and Deeds.
  2. 2.Olivier Masson (1996). “La dispersion des antiquités chypriotes: les deux collections Cesnola”. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 25, 3-32. Online
  3. 3.Nicholas Stanley-Price (2018). “Illicit excavation: the trial of Alessandro Palma di Cesnola in Cyprus in 1878”. The Antiquaries Journal 98, 297-317.
  4. 4.T. B. Mitford (1971). The Inscriptions of Kourion. Philadelphia, American Philosophical Society.
  5. 5.L. P. di Cesnola (1878). Cyprus: Its Ancient Cities, Tombs, and Temples.
  6. 6.J. L. Myres (1897). “Excavations in Cyprus in 1894”. Journal of Hellenic Studies 17, 134-173. Online
  7. 7.Anderson Galleries (1928). Cypriote & Classical Antiquities: Duplicates of the Cesnola & Other Collections, Part One (sale number 2253, New York, 30-31 March 1928). New York, Anderson Galleries. Online
  8. 8.Craig Barker, Robert S. Merrillees (2017). “Cypriot Antiquities from the Cesnola Collections in the Nicholson Museum at the University of Sydney”. Mediterranean Archaeology 30, 51-71.
  9. 9.L. W. King (1916). “Review of Handbook of the Cesnola Collection of Antiquities from Cyprus by John L. Myres”. Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 3, 66-68. Online
  10. 10. (1871). Catalogue of a very interesting collection of early Greek antiquities ... discovered in the Island of Cyprus ... by General de Cesnola, 9 January 1871. London, Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge.
  11. 11.“Metropolitan Museum of Art online record 74.51.2453”. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  12. 12.“Metropolitan Museum of Art online record 74.51.2458”. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  13. 13.“Metropolitan Museum of Art online record 74.51.2462”. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  14. 14.“Metropolitan Museum of Art online record 74.51.2454”. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  15. 15.“Metropolitan Museum of Art online record 74.51.965”. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  16. 16.“Metropolitan Museum of Art online record 74.51.3554-3555”. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  17. 17. (1884). “The End of the Feuardent-Cesnola Trial”. The Art Amateur 10, 96-97. Online
  18. 18.Nicholas Stanley-Price (2018). “Illicit excavation: the trial of Alessandro Palma di Cesnola in Cyprus in 1878”. The Antiquaries Journal 98, 297-317.