Ancient CyprusAncient Cyprus

Dealer · Collector · Photographer

Michael Caremfilaki

1852–1928 · Cyprus

Merchant. Dealt at Larnaca. Sold to Luigi Adriano Milani; worked with Giacomo Cecconi.

Life and work

  1. 1896
    Sold antiquities to the French archaeologist Paul Perdrizet, then collecting in Cyprus for the French School at Athens; Perdrizet published funerary cippi belonging to 'Sr Caremphylaki' in BCH 1896, p. 343.

    LarnacaSoldi 2025, p. 18Masson 1990, n. 48

  2. 23 November 1897
    A British Museum letter of this date in 'Correspondence: Excavations in Cyprus' names a 'Karemphylako' as owner of antiquities; no letters from him survive.

    Tatton-Brown 2001, p. 177

  3. 28 January 1902
    First documented link with Florence: Cecconi tells Milani he has 'many photographs of ancient objects from Cyprus that someone from there is offering for sale'; Cecconi introduces Caremfilaki to Milani and for some months (1902-1903) is go-between.

    LarnacaSchiavo 2011Soldi 2025, p. 18

  4. 1903–1906
    Direct sales to Milani for the Florence museum: Bettelli and Lo Schiavo list the later Florence acquisitions as made in 1903 and 1906 ('acquisti Karemfilaki'), Di Paolo as 'new purchases between 1902 and 1909'. Lo Schiavo says direct business with Milani began in 1903. In the following years Milani asked him specifically for 'Mycenaean and pre-Mycenaean' objects.

    LarnacaBettelli & Schiavo 2010Paolo 2010Schiavo 2011Soldi 2025, p. 19

  5. 19 January 1905
    Wrote to Milani enclosing a life-size photograph of a copper object that 'seems to me an incense burner; the upper part is removable and uncovered', price 300 francs. On 17 May 1905 he voiced worries about the new antiquities protection law (the Antiquities Law of 10 May 1905); Milani acknowledged the photograph and counter-offered 250 francs on 7 June 1905.

    LarnacaSchiavo 2011, p. 88

  6. July 1905
    A lot offered by Caremfilaki reached the Florence museum in July 1905 (inv. nos. 82420-82510, described in the bill of lading as 'Prehellenic objects, coming from different parts of Greece'): it included the Cypriot bronze tripod-stand and hemispherical cup now MAF 82503 and 82504. Soldi adds that in 1905 Milani refused a group of Roman glass vessels he offered.

    FlorenceSchiavo 2011, p. 87, p. 88Soldi 2025, p. 19

  7. Undated
    Offered antiquities to the British Museum on at least two occasions, both through its agents in Cyprus and directly to Alexander Murray, Keeper of Greek and Roman Antiquities, supplying photographs each time, among them several of a fine bronze stand with figured decoration now in the Antikensammlung, Berlin. He also seems to have sent a picture of that stand to Adolf Furtwangler, who wrote to Murray about it and who may have been the intermediary with the Berlin museum.

    Soldi 2025, p. 18

  8. Undated
    Credited with a postcard of ancient pottery from Cyprus, reproduced in S. G. Lazarides, Souvenir of Famagusta (Cultural Centre of the Popular Bank). Soldi, citing Lazarides, calls him Larnaca merchant, printer and antiquities dealer, with a postcard series.

    Marangou 2000Soldi 2025, p. 18

Connections

5 people
Paul PerdrizetLuigi Adriano MilaniSebastiano SoldiAlexander Stuart MurrayGiacomo CecconiMichael Caremfilaki
Sales & giftsScholarshipColleagues

Sales, gifts & bequests

Scholarship

Colleagues & contacts

Objects

  • Cypriot bronze (nearly pure copper) tripod-stand, h. 10.5-11.2 cm, with a hemispherical cup (h. 5.3, dia. 12 cm) that fits on its ring; Late Cypriot II per Lo Schiavo

    Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Firenze 82503 (stand), 82504 (cup)July 1905Schiavo 2011, p. 88, p. 89, p. 93

Sources

  1. 1.A. G. Marangou (ed.) (2000). The Consul Luigi Palma di Cesnola 1832-1904: Life and Deeds.
  2. 2.Sebastiano Soldi (2025). “The Italian entomologist Giacomo Cecconi and Cyprus: a step towards the formation of the Cypriot collection in the National Archaeological Museum of Florence”. Empire & Excavation: Critical perspectives on archaeology in British-period Cyprus, 1878-1960, 93-.
  3. 3.Fulvia Lo Schiavo (2011). “A Newly Rediscovered Cypriot Tripod-Stand in the Florence Archaeological Museum”. Metallurgy: Understanding How, Learning Why. Studies in Honor of James D. Muhly. INSTAP Academic Press.
  4. 4.M. Bettelli, F. Lo Schiavo (2010). “La raccolta del Museo archeologico di Firenze nel quadro della storia del collezionismo di antichità cipriote in Italia”. Researches in Cypriote History and Archaeology, 85-94. Florence University Press.
  5. 5.Silvana Di Paolo (2010). “"...dall'esempio dei suoi colleghi di Francia, Inghilterra e d'America..." ovvero il collezionismo di emulazione: la raccolta Colucci nel quadro dell'archeologia cipriota della seconda metà del XIX secolo”. Researches in Cypriote History and Archaeology, 75-83. Florence, Florence University Press.
  6. 6.Olivier Masson (1990). “Paul Perdrizet à Chypre en 1896”. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 13, 27-41. Online
  7. 7.Veronica Tatton-Brown (ed.) (2001). Cyprus in the 19th Century AD: Fact, Fancy and Fiction. Oxford, Oxbow.