Takey Crist

Takey Crist founded the Cyprus Museum in Jacksonville, North Carolina, in 1988, with the stated aim of raising awareness of Cypriot culture and heritage in the United States. Gatzsche describes him as "himself Cypriot" and gives him the title of Honorary Consul of the Republic of Cyprus¹.

The museum held antiquities, historical engravings and paintings, folk clothing, everyday objects and documents on the British occupation and the Cyprus conflict. Artists, politicians and presidents of the Republic of Cyprus visited it. In 2009 Crist gave 40 antiquities and 150 books to the University of North Carolina¹. Gatzsche says the state's regulation of the export of "duplicates" gave rise to many private collections, such as those of Desmond Morris in Britain, Crist in the United States and Leto Severis in Cyprus¹.

The museum closed in 2016, which Gatzsche attributes to the founder's health problems. Almost all its objects were put up for auction, and some probably remain with the family. After the main sale in 2018 the pieces were scattered across the world¹. The Institute of Classical Archaeology in Leipzig, home of the Alexander Malios collection, acquired many of the Jacksonville pieces, negotiated with new owners to reunite others, and obtained Crist's archive and library through his heirs¹.