Horace White

Horace White, the British vice-consul at Larnaca in the early 1860s, bought the statuettes found at Idalion in 1863. Hill dates his term to 1861-64 and says he wrote the British annual report for 1862³. In August 1861 he arrested Andreas Vondiziano, vice-consul of Russia and of Sweden-Norway at Larnaca⁵. The French consul Maricourt disliked him and the Russian representative, partly from political jealousy over Prince Alfred's candidacy for the Greek throne³.

In May 1863 Demetrios Pierides told Melchior de Vogüé that some very interesting statuettes had been found at Idalion, entire and in good condition, and that White, "who was the fortunate purchaser", would exchange them for Seleucid coins, of which Pierides called him a zealous collector¹. Grasset photographed the main statuette, and White wrote to Waddington about them. In June he bought a gold coin with a Cypriot-syllabic legend and sent a description to W. S. W. Vaux at the British Museum¹. Vogüé replied on 26 July 1863 that the Louvre would exchange, if White sent a list of the Seleucid coins he lacked and his price. By 28 November 1864 White had sold the statuettes to M. Eastwood of London, and he hoped to get about 100 pounds for the gold coin¹.

In March 1865 Maricourt reported that White had visited Amathus without telling him and had the wall round the great vase pulled down to examine it⁴. The wall was the one Edmond Duthoit had built in 1862; the French then moved to remove the vase⁷. The present whereabouts of the Idalion statuettes are not recorded.