Ancient CyprusAncient Cyprus

Patron · Museum buyer

Constantine Leventis

1944–2002 · Cyprus

Chairman from 1980 of the Cypriot Foundation Anastasios G. Leventis, whose money bought antiquities from the market for the Cyprus Museum, and a key witness for Cyprus in Cyprus v. Goldberg.

Biography

Constantine Leventis chaired the Cypriot Foundation Anastasios G. Leventis from its establishment in 1980, and in 1989 he was deposed in the Kanakaria mosaics trial, where Dan Hofstadter calls him "the linchpin of the Cypriot case"1,9.

Vassos Karageorghis writes that his judgement, enhanced by his background as a classical scholar, favoured the ancient heritage of Cyprus and led the Foundation to work with the Department of Antiquities. Under him the Foundation made sums available to buy antiquities at auction or from dealers and donated them to the Cyprus Museum1. In 1980 the Museum received a vase bought from a London dealer through the generosity of "the Ambassador of Cyprus to UNESCO, M. C. Leventis"2. The British Museum's gallery of Cypriot antiquities opened on 9 December 1987, an idea Kiely says Leventis and Sir David Hunt championed, and its refurbishment in 2012 was a memorial to him4. The Constantine Leventis Wing of the Leventis Municipal Museum in Nicosia was inaugurated in January 20105.

In October 1983, advised by "Mr. Konstantin Leventis of Cyprus", Dominique de Menil telephoned Karageorghis about the Lysi frescoes, and the Menil Foundation resolved on 1 November to redeem them10. In 1989 Leventis was deposed a week before the trial. According to Hofstadter he testified that the Jude and Bartholomew roundels returned in 1984 were given back and not purchased9.

Others disputed that. Savo Kujundzic stated under oath in 1990 that Leventis had bought some of the Kanakaria mosaics from Aydin Dikmen, and Peg Goldberg told Hofstadter that a man she believed to be Dikmen said Leventis had paid about 180,000 Deutsche marks in 19849. Leventis told Hofstadter he had never met Dikmen. The judge denied the motion built on Kujundzic's statement, finding that it did not undermine the Cypriot case even if true9.

Life and work

  1. 1978–1989
    Foundation purchases for the Cyprus Museum: Karageorghis (1990, p. 11) states that 'at a time when the island's archaeological treasures were being illicitly exported and sold on the international antiquities markets, the Foundation made sums promptly available to buy such objects at auction or directly from dealers and donated them to the Cyprus Museum', and only items not identifiable as from a specific museum or collection were bought abroad (known-provenance objects pursued with Interpol). Objects listed pp. 49-80. The booklet (searched in full) does not mention Kanakaria, Lysi or the 1984 roundels, and does not describe his personal role in any purchase; its p. 86 notes of Anastasios Leventis that he 'helped to restore ancient churches and to repatriate plundered antiquities'.

    Karageorghis 1990, pp. 11

  2. 1980
    A vase bought from a London antiquities dealer for the Cyprus Museum "thanks to the generosity of the Ambassador of Cyprus to UNESCO, M. C. Leventis"; to be published in RDAC 1981.

    LondonKarageorghis 1981

  3. 1980
    Chairman of the Board of the Foundation Anastasios G. Leventis (Cypriot branch, established 1980); a "classical scholar" whose judgement favoured the ancient heritage of Cyprus.

    Karageorghis 1990, p. 10

  4. October 1983
    After Cyprus (6 Sep 1983) identified the Lysi frescoes offered to the Menil Foundation as removed from the church of St Themonianos (Euphemianos) near Lysi, Dominique de Menil, 'advised by Mr. Konstantin Leventis of Cyprus, a major patron in matters concerning his country's antiquities', telephoned Vassos Karageorghis late in October 1983; Karageorghis invited her to Nicosia. The Menil Foundation then resolved (1 Nov 1983) to redeem the frescoes for the Church of Cyprus through Yanni Petsopoulos.

    Carr & Morrocco 1991

  5. 1984
    Two Kanakaria mosaic roundels (Saints Jude and Bartholomew) returned to Cyprus, along with two fakes. Leventis's version (deposition, per Hofstadter): a London dealer, Yanni Petsopoulos, arranged for them to be left in a warehouse in Frankfurt for the Cypriot Embassy people in Bonn to collect; he did not know the name of the man who had held them, nor did anyone in the Cypriot government or the Church to his knowledge. Leventis's testimony as reported: they were given back, not purchased.

    FrankfurtHofstadter 1994

  6. 9 December 1987
    British Museum opened the A. G. Leventis Gallery of Cypriote Antiquities (grant of the A. G. Leventis Foundation); Kiely (2017) says the idea was championed by Constantine Leventis and Sir David Hunt with Karageorghis's advice.

    LondonKarageorghis 1990, p. 82Kiely 2017

  7. May 1989
    Deposed (a week before the trial) for the Republic of Cyprus and the Church in Cyprus v. Goldberg at Indianapolis; Hofstadter calls him 'a key figure' for Cyprus's lawyer Tom Kline and 'the linchpin of the Cypriot case'. He testified that Cyprus had announced the disappearance of the Kanakaria mosaics just months after the 1979 theft, that he had no knowledge of Aydin Dikmen until a few months before the trial, and that he had 'a few watercolors' and no art collection. Hofstadter says Leventis appeared in place of Vassos Karageorghis, whose deposition Emerson had sought and who did not appear.

    IndianapolisHofstadter 1994

  8. 1989
    NamedWitness for the plaintiffs (Republic of Cyprus and the Church) in Cyprus v. Goldberg; the court ruled for Cyprus (Judge Noland, 3 Aug 1989, per Hofstadter's date for the ruling). Not a defendant. Goldberg's side later alleged, citing Savo's statement and the man she believed to be Dikmen, that Cyprus had dealt with Dikmen in 1984 and paid for the roundels; Leventis denied it under oath and again to Hofstadter. No court found against him on this.

    Hofstadter 1994

  9. March 1990
    Peg Goldberg told Hofstadter that, at a second Munich meeting, a man she believed to be Aydin Dikmen said he had thought he was selling the mosaics to Cyprus, in the person of Constantine Leventis, who, he said, had paid him about 180,000 Deutsche marks in 1984 for four other Kanakaria mosaics (Hofstadter takes this to mean the Jude and Bartholomew roundels and the two fakes). Hearsay at two removes (Peg, quoting the man she believed to be Dikmen). Leventis testified the pieces were given back, not purchased.

    MunichHofstadter 1994

  10. 3 August 1990
    Goldberg's lawyer Emerson filed a motion to set aside judgment, on the sworn statement of Savo Kujundzic, who said Leventis had met Dikmen and Petsopoulos at Sotheby's and had bought some of the Kanakaria mosaics from Dikmen. Judge Noland denied the motion three months later, finding that Savo's statement, even if wholly true, did not radically undermine the Cypriot case. Hofstadter says Savo's version of Leventis 'seemed a little off the mark'.

    IndianapolisHofstadter 1994

  11. c. 1990
    Hofstadter met Leventis in London in November (year not given on the page; the sequence places it after the Aug 1990 motion). Leventis denied Savo's account: 'I've never met Mr. Dikmen in my life'; he first heard the name 'a couple of months before the Indianapolis trial'; at the time of the Lysi salvage he asked Petsopoulos for the name of the man who held the frescoes and Petsopoulos would not give it, but told him the source's story of the frescoes' Anatolian provenance. Asked about his deposition denial of owning art, he conceded he has a collection of other antiquities, 'nothing very valuable', but 'no Cypriot pieces'. Hofstadter describes him as short, scholarly-looking, modestly dressed; Leventis said he did not know where the rest of the Kanakaria mosaics are beyond what the Cypriot government tells him.

    LondonHofstadter 1994

  12. 2009–2010
    Constantine Leventis Wing of the Leventis Municipal Museum, Nicosia, inaugurated January 2010, housing the Severis and Phylactou collections (Severis collection placed on long-term loan end 2009).

    NicosiaKarageorghis 2010Karageorghis & Severis 2010

  13. 2012
    BM gallery refurbished with Foundation and Leventis family support "as a memorial to the late Constantinos Leventis".

    LondonKiely 2017

Connections

14 people
Peg GoldbergVassos KarageorghisAydın DikmenDominique de MenilYanni PetsopoulosLoukia Loizou HadjigavrielDavid HuntSavo KujundžićThomas R. KlineAnastasios G. LeventisAnastasios P. LeventisJoe EmersonJulian ChrysostomidesThanos GregoriadesConstantine Leventis
DisputesColleagues

Disputes & the law

Colleagues & contacts

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On Ancient Cyprus

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Sources

  1. 1.V. Karageorghis (1990). The A. G. Leventis Foundation and the Cultural Heritage of Cyprus.
  2. 2.V. Karageorghis (1981). “Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1980”. Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 105.
  3. 3.H. W. Catling (2009). “Review of V. Karageorghis, A Lifetime in the Archaeology of Cyprus (2007)”. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 39.
  4. 4.T. Kiely (2017). “Britain and the archaeology of Cyprus II: 1914 to the present day”. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 47, 253-310. Online
  5. 5.V. Karageorghis (ed.) (2010). Cypriote Antiquities in the Phylactou Collection. Nicosia, A. G. Leventis Foundation.
  6. 6.V. Karageorghis, D. C. Severis (2010). The Severis Collection of Cypriote Antiquities. Nicosia, A. G. Leventis Foundation.
  7. 7.F. G. Maier, V. Karageorghis (1984). Paphos: History and Archaeology. 383 pp.. Nicosia, A. G. Leventis Foundation.
  8. 8.V. Karageorghis, O. Vanchugov (2001). Greek and Cypriote Antiquities in the Archaeological Museum of Odessa.
  9. 9.Dan Hofstadter (1994). Goldberg's Angel: An Adventure in the Antiquities Trade.
  10. 10.Annemarie Weyl Carr, Laurence J. Morrocco (1991). A Byzantine Masterpiece Recovered: The Thirteenth-Century Murals of Lysi, Cyprus. Austin, University of Texas Press, with the Menil Foundation.