George C. Cox

George C. Cox was the museum photographer whose sworn statement placed him in the repair room beside the restorer. He was employed to take pictures at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, both for the museum authorities and for Osgood & Co., who were to publish an atlas of the collection¹. While figures were prepared for photography he visited the repair shop daily, and he later described what he saw there: repairing, restoration and building up of pieces, and bronzes put through acid baths¹. His employment dates are not recorded.

In 1881 Gaston Feuardent sent the museum's investigating committee a sworn statement by "Mr. Cox, the photographer of the Museum". It said that the hunting side of the Golgoi sarcophagus had been in pieces and repaired, that the added parts carried engraving, and that Cox "saw Mr. Baillard do part of the engraving"². The museum's restorer was Charles Balliard. Feuardent reports that the committee, speaking through William Cowper Prime, first told him that "a wall two feet thick" kept Cox from seeing the work, and that Cox then forced himself before the committee and made Prime concede he had had access. According to Feuardent, the committee still found the charges "without the slightest foundation"². This is Feuardent's account alone.

Cox testified in the 1883-84 libel trial that brought Feuardent and Luigi Palma di Cesnola into court. As The Art Amateur reported his evidence, he said he did not believe the committee's inquiry had been honest as regards Prime and Cesnola. He said Prime had led President Barnard to a statue with a ball in its hand and declared "on my word of honor as a man" that it was as taken from the earth, although Cox had seen it in the repair room the day before with its head off. He also said Prime declined his offer to show the committee the restorations he had seen¹. The magazine's editorial supplement credits "a photograph by Cox on sale at the door" for the state of statue no. 39³.