Josef Strzygowski

The gold Epiphany medallion from the second Lambousa treasure, now at Dumbarton Oaks, was bought at Graz on 22 June 1906 by the art historian Josef Strzygowski, according to Ross. He bought it with its chains from "a Cypriot Greek", whose letter said the pieces had been sold in Cyprus to a Frenchman, who resold them to an American for 4,500 pounds¹. Strzygowski, born in Bielsko-Biala on 7 March 1862, was professor of art history at Graz from 1892 to 1909 and at Vienna from 1909 to 1932; he died in Vienna on 2 January 1941².

Strzygowski began publishing the medallion in 1915¹. It reached Dumbarton Oaks in 1955 (acc. 55.10)¹. Metcalf adds that a letter by a Greek Cypriot involved in the sale shows the medallion lay in the same pot as a girdle and jewellery³. Nothing is recorded of where the medallion was between 1915 and 1955.