Paul Tardieu

Paul Tardieu (1811-1868) was a merchant of a Marseille family, established at Larnaca in skins and trimmings, with a property at Dhali; Masson and Hermary call dealing in Cypriot antiquities normal for the period⁵. He was the uncle by marriage of Sosthène Grasset^4,5.

In 1862 the mission of Melchior de Vogüé lodged at Tardieu's farm at Athienou⁴. Edmond Duthoit paid his workmen what Tardieu paid his own and praised Tardieu's complaisance, though he later complained of Tardieu's demands. He also blamed a company of treasure seekers, of which Tardieu was a member, for smashing a painted marble sarcophagus at Dhali; that is Duthoit's report alone¹.

Tardieu bought the Athienou stele, which a peasant had found, for 600 francs, 200 of them an indemnity for the finder's time in prison. He ceded his share to Grasset at cost, Vogüé paid 300 francs, and Vogüé gave the stele to the Louvre in 1880^1,3. In June 1865 Pierides wrote to Vogüé that Tardieu had paid him 750 francs for three Phoenician stones, which went to Marseille consigned to Tardieu's brother Jacques². In August 1865 Tardieu billed Duthoit 500 piastres for the "Statue de Bafo". Masson and Hermary identify it as the Hathoric capital of Nea Paphos, with Tardieu as intermediary to a Cypriot seller; Foucart-Borville proposed a different Louvre object^4,5. In July 1866 Tardieu and Mattei despatched eleven cases, eight barrels and three monoliths of the mission's finds on a State vessel⁴.