Marius Tano

Marius Panayiotis Tano persuaded the French consul at Larnaca to back a French excavation on land that Tano owned. W. Froehner described him as an antiquities dealer long established in Cairo and met him on 24 June 1889, chiefly to see his Egyptian pieces⁴. R. S. Merrillees records that Tano took up residence in Cyprus in 1890; his land lay between old Larnaca and Scala².

In 1895 or 1896 Tano wrote to the consul, Auguste-Emile Boysset, that an earlier owner of his land had found the Sargon stele and other pieces acquired by Berlin. Merrillees says Tano misrepresented other facts in the letter and that the claim must be treated with caution². At Tano's instigation Boysset recommended that France seek a British permit; Charles Fossey began digging on the site in 1896, fell ill and left, and Paul Perdrizet took over^1,5. Boysset also employed Tano as a substitute chancellor at the consulate. In April 1896 members of the French community in Larnaca wrote to the Foreign Minister that "a Greek named Mr Marius Tano" was notoriously ignorant and incompetent. Boysset replied that Tano was French, had earned the palmes académiques in Egypt, and was better educated than any member of the Béraud family¹.

Merrillees judged that Boysset's antiquities came mainly if not wholly from Tano, and added that there must be some doubt about Tano's scruples, since Perdrizet was scathing about his conduct¹. On 6 May 1896 Boysset reported that Tano was ready to send Cypriot antiquities to the Louvre once Britain permitted their export³. On 11 September 1898, at Larnaca, Froehner bought inscribed bronzes from him for 225 francs⁴.