Ronald Storrs

The Antiquities Law that let the Swedish Cyprus Expedition take a share of its finds out of the island was amended in 1927, during the governorship of Ronald Storrs. Born at Bury St Edmunds on 19 November 1881, he had been Oriental Secretary in Cairo and Military Governor of Jerusalem from 1917 before he came to Cyprus¹⁷. He landed there on 30 November 1926 as Governor, with Rupert Gunnis as his Private Secretary and ADC⁴. As Governor he was president ex officio of the Cyprus Museum Committee⁴.

The law and the Swedes

On 13 October 1926 the Swedes wrote to Storrs asking for a change in the law. He asked the Committee to interpret the 1905 Law as broadly as possible, and a December 1926 letter promised "as liberal an interpretation as maybe legally permissible"⁷. The Law was then amended in 1927, and Stylianou-Lambert and Bounia give the share of the finds exported to Sweden as 65 per cent⁷. Einar Nilson Gjerstad gave the credit for the change to Luke Zenon Pierides, who in his account "successfully introduced a law" allowing the Museum to cede part of the finds⁹.

Storrs described the matter in Orientations. The 1905 law, he wrote, had "encouraged illicit digging and smuggling" and "discouraged legitimate excavation by learned institutions"; in 1927 it was modified so that antiquities could be exported with the Governor's permission, in consultation with the Museum authorities and Council¹. He credited the change with bringing the Swedish Crown Prince's expedition to Vouni and Soli¹. Gjerstad's first volume of the expedition's report thanks "Sir Ronald Storrs and the Museum Authorities" for the finds allotted to the expedition¹¹.

According to Houby-Nielsen, Storrs permitted the expedition to dig at Lapithos in June 1927, issued the Kition permits in March 1929, and issued the Ayia Irini permit in early November 1929, two days after a village priest brought a figurine to the Museum⁸. She also reports that Gjerstad wrote to the Crown Prince on 21 August 1928 expressing mistrust of Storrs and Gunnis, and that Storrs strongly disapproved of Gjerstad's "Greek" interpretations of the finds. In her account he warned London newspapers against reporting the Greek statues from Kition, and the attempt failed⁸. Gjerstad's published memoir is warmer: it has the Governor and Lady Storrs seeing the Crown Prince off at Limassol⁹.

The 1930 division

About 18,000 finds were to be divided. A lower court of Menelaos Markides, Gunnis and Gjerstad drafted the division, and contested points went to a higher court of the Crown Prince (Gustaf VI Adolf) and the Governor. The final proposal was ready on 26 October 1930⁹. Tomb groups were not to be split, Sweden was to receive a representative series, and unique objects were to stay in Cyprus⁹. Göransson writes that the Crown Prince and Storrs had the final say and that the Committee ratified the proposal without change on 27 October 1930¹⁰.

Writers have read his support for the expedition politically. Kiely summarises Given's argument that colonial authority used archaeology to manage Cypriot nationalism, and adds that Storrs's promotion of the expedition also stemmed from a genuine interest in archaeology¹³. Stylianou-Lambert and Bounia write that through Storrs the authorities encouraged the discovery of an ancient autochthonous population, and that there is no evidence of conscious collaboration between the authorities and the Swedes⁷.

Duplicates and purchases

Markides's sale certificates for Museum duplicates went to the Governor for counter-signature through the Private Secretary, and Storrs wrote warmly of Gunnis's work in selling duplicates to cruise passengers^1,4. In 1932 he created the post of Inspector of Antiquities for Gunnis⁴.

Storrs bought art and antiquities. Stanley-Price calls him and Gunnis "both of them keen collectors wishing to furnish their new houses appropriately", while noting that the Museum's sales file has no record of sales to them in December 1926⁴. Discussing the 1929 inquiries into illegal export, he writes that Storrs, as a keen purchaser, "might not have allowed these matters to be investigated by the police"⁴. Merrillees reports that J. R. Stewart once told him that Gunnis invited villagers to bring him pots and that "even Storrs also bought as much as he could"⁶. Neither account says that Storrs exported antiquities illegally or kept an unregistered collection.

Storrs himself wrote that he was "no collector" and "bought for the pride of the eye". His list of what he owned included one or two marble Greek torsos, a Roman head, Byzantine icons, Rhodian plates, rugs and Egyptian hawks, with no Cypriot provenance stated for any item¹. Government House burned down on 21 October 1931, and the collection was destroyed¹. Three weeks later he wrote that "as a collector I am finished; as a governor only just begun"⁴.

He left Cyprus in 1932 for Northern Rhodesia, retired in 1934, and died in London on 1 November 1955¹⁷.