Ancient CyprusAncient Cyprus

Consul / diplomat · Excavator · Collector · Dealer

Russian consul Yusefovich

fl. 1870–1879 · Russia

Russian consul who sold several hundred Cypriot antiquities to Count Alexei Uvarov in the 1870s and is said to have excavated tombs at Golgoi in 1870.

Biography

A Russian consul named Yusefovich sold a collection of Cypriot antiquities to Count Alexei Uvarov in Moscow. When Uvarov showed the collection to the Moscow Archaeological Society on 27 April 1877, he said he had bought it in the 1870s from the Russian consul Yusefovich1. It numbered several hundred pieces, mostly pottery and terracotta figurines from the Bronze Age to the Roman period1. His forename and the place where he served are not recorded.

According to Uvarov's 1880 article, as quoted in the catalogue of Cypriot art in Russian museums, Yusefovich excavated tombs not far from the temple at Golgoi-Agios Photios in 1870, the year of Luigi Palma di Cesnola's find there. The catalogue authors describe him as a collector, not an archaeologist, and no findspots survive for his pieces1. Four Base Ring female figurines in the Uvarov collection are labelled as coming from Cesnola, and the catalogue authors think they did1.

A T. P. Iuzefovich gave the Odessa museum a group of Cypriot sculpture in 18752. The two surnames are close variants, but no source states that they belong to the same man. Nothing more is known of Yusefovich.

Life and work

  1. 1870
    Said, per Uvarov 1880 as paraphrased by the catalogue, to have excavated 'tombs not far from the temple' at Golgoi-Agios Photios, the same place and year as Cesnola's find; no findspots recorded because he was a collector, not an archaeologist.

    Golgoi (Agios Photios)Karageorghis & Bukina 2005, p. 5

  2. 1870s
    Sold Count A. S. Uvarov a collection of several hundred Cypriot antiquities (mainly pottery and terracotta figurines, Bronze Age to Roman).

    Karageorghis & Bukina 2005, p. 55Karageorghis & Bukina 2005, p. 5

  3. 27 April 1877
    Uvarov laid the collection bought from Yusefovich before the Moscow Archaeological Society (the buyer's act, not Yusefovich's).

    MoscowKarageorghis & Bukina 2005, p. 5

Connections

3 people
Count Alexei Sergeevich U…Luigi Palma di CesnolaT. P. IuzefovichRussian consul Yusefovich
Sales & giftsDisputesColleagues

Sales, gifts & bequests

Disputes & the law

Colleagues & contacts

Objects

  • Several hundred Cypriot vases and terracottas, Bronze Age to Roman (Uvarov collection; now State Historical Museum and Pushkin Museum, Moscow)

    From unrecorded; Golgoi claimed for his 1870 diggingState Historical Museum, Moscow; Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow1870sKarageorghis & Bukina 2005, p. 55

Sources

  1. 1.V. Karageorghis, O. Bukina (2005). Ancient Cypriote Art in Russian Museums. A. G. Leventis Foundation.
  2. 2.V. Karageorghis, O. Vanchugov (2001). Greek and Cypriote Antiquities in the Archaeological Museum of Odessa.
  3. 3.C. S. Lightfoot (2017). The Cesnola Collection of Cypriot Art: Ancient Glass. New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  4. 4.A. G. Marangou (ed.) (2000). The Consul Luigi Palma di Cesnola 1832-1904: Life and Deeds.