Michael Kantsantonos

In February 1925 the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden was offered "an important collection": eight limestone sculptures from Cyprus, chiefly two monumental busts of priests or devotees and a head of Hercules/Melqart. The museum's Cyprus catalogue names the seller as "a certain Michael Kantsantonos from Lefkara" and adds that he may have combined dealing in lace with dealing in antiquities. The Amsterdam collector W. Speijer acted as intermediary¹. The catalogue's captions credit three pieces to him: a male votary statue, a female votary or goddess, and a head of Heracles/Melqart. The catalogue does not say how many of the eight Leiden bought¹.

A seller of similar name appears in Berlin. Recke lists purchases for the Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte in 1930, 1931 and 1936 "bei Koutsantonos, Lefkara", and a purchase by the Antikensammlung in 1936/37 from "Slg. Kouzantonos" of about 150 objects, mostly vases². The shared town and the variant spellings suggest one man, though Recke gives no forename.