Cypriot antiquities, Pierides Foundation Museum, Larnaca

This is the second of two posts on the Pierides family's collections. Here, I review the history of the Demetrios Zeno Pierides Collection, which is now the Pierides Foundation Museum, Larnaca.

It is a very long post; but it would be far shorter if you ignored the first two sections - the introduction on the development of the Pierides Foundation Museum, and the sigh of disappointment at an example of nonsense.

Nonetheless, the find-spots and acquisition dates of antiquities in the Demetrios Zeno Pierides Collection, and its successor Pierides Foundation Museum Collection, clearly show cross-ethnic looting, as part of a bicommunal illicit antiquities trade, during the Cyprus Conflict.

Cypriot antiquities, George and Nefeli Giabra Pierides Collection

This is the first of two posts on the Pierides family's collections. Here, I review the history of the Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation's George and Nefeli Giabra Pierides Collection. I show the source of its Cypriot antiquities - nineteenth-century looting - but there is too little information to say anything else.

Phylactou Collection, Cypriot antiquities; British colonial failure

Last year, Vassos Karageorghis published the Cypriote Antiquities in the Phylactou Collection. None of them had any information, so all of them were probably looted (before the Cyprus Conflict).

However, the catalogue did have some information relevant to this research; and the existence of the collection implies a failure in British colonial administration.

Cypriot antiquities law on looted artefacts and private collections

Recently, I have been discussing Cypriot antiquities law (on looted artefacts and private collections), here on Cultural Heritage in Conflict, and with archaeologist Paul Barford, and collector Peter Tompa.

Since I am working up the data from the publication of the Cypriote Antiquities in the Phylactou Collection, I thought its official presentation of antiquities policy would be a good introduction.

Now, I will only discuss British and Cypriot antiquities law(s); and I will only discuss the laws themselves, not archaeologists' and collectors' behaviour under them. Despite that, it is still a loser-length blog post, more for me to be able to cite than for readers to suffer.

conflict antiquities as political tools against war

Like my previous post on the mid-conflict travelling exhibition of Cyprus Treasures, this is about a post-war travelling exhibition of Cypriot cultural heritage, Cyprus B.C.: 7000 Years of History. It used conflict antiquities as political tools against war and destruction; but surprisingly, and disappointingly, not against their own looting.

Cypriot Treasures: looted antiquities as political tools in conflict

In 1968, Geneva's Museum of Art and History (1) hosted the Republic of Cyprus's first international exhibition of the Treasures of Cyprus (2). It was a fantastic show of the use of (looted) Cypriot antiquities as political tools in the middle of the intercommunal conflict.

Munich Museum, Bronze Age Cypriot antiquities

Continuing to work through my information from antiquities catalogues, I accidentally rewrote a post (1) I had forgotten about (on Bronze Age antiquities in a museum in Munich); but that was for the best, because I found a silly mistake in the original (including rather than excluding a copy of an artefact).

I have corrected that (and the numbers), and made the presentation of information much clearer; I have also inserted the source data, and deleted the bits of copied-out German text.

So, I have deleted the original post: this is the new one.

Louvre Museum, Chalcolithic to Roman Cypriot antiquities

Following on from my previous post on the Louvre Museum's Bronze Age Cypriot antiquities, here is information from Annie Caubet, Antoine Hermary and Vassos Karageorghis's (1992) catalogue of Antique Art of Cyprus in the Museum of the Louvre from the Chalcolithic to the Roman Period (1).

Tompa's incorrect claim on looted Cypriot antiquities collecting

After I queried American lawyer and private antiquities collector Peter Tompa on Cypriot cultural protection, he replied with an incorrect claim of an incorrect claim about looted Cypriot antiquities collecting.

Greece: Albanian, Greek drugs, arms, antiquities smuggling

Athens News Agency (ANA) has just reported that,
Attica Drugs Police, Ioannina Police, and the Antiquities Smuggling Department have broken an Albanian-and-Greek smuggling ring, trafficking arms into Greece.

Altogether, four military rifles, with three magazines and a telescope. A machinegun with a magazine and a telescope, two Kalashnikovs, a double-barrel hunting rifle, 25 grenades, a smokebomb, 11 detonators and 297 cartridges of various calibres were confiscated.

Croatian Serb war crimes suspect financing life through art trade

I just heard, via the Museum Security Network, that Serbian police searched for Croatian Serb war crimes suspect Goran Hadzic and, in one of his hiding places, found paintings, and photographs of a painting by Amedeo Modigliani. It is believed that Hadzic is financing his life through the art trade.

Auschwitz death camp sign theft: neo-Nazi Anders Hoegstroem jailed

I just heard, via the Museum Security Network, that the Swedish neo-Nazi suspect has been jailed for Auschwitz sign theft.

Louvre Museum, Bronze Age Cypriot antiquities

In 1981, Annie Caubet, Vassos Karageorghis and Marguerite Yon published the Antiquities of Cyprus: the Bronze Age (1) from the Louvre Museum's Department of Oriental Antiquities (2). It's a dull, little sample of material, but it does suggest a historically bicommunal illicit trade in Cypriot antiquities.

registered Cypriot antiquities, Hungarian collections

This is a short, for-the-record note on the small number of registered Cypriot antiquities in Hungarian collections. There's no exceptional information on the trade in Cypriot artefacts.

querying Tompa on Cypriot cultural protection

On his blog as a Cultural Property Observer, private antiquities collector and lawyer Peter Tompa commented upon Barford's blogging of my questioning whether "archaeologists accepted Greek Cypriot looting of Alaas, Cyprus". This is a querying of Tompa's use of my work in his activism against Cypriot cultural protection.

Barford on Cypriot antiquities looting policy logic: clarification

On his blog on Portable Antiquity Collecting and Heritage Issues, archaeologist Paul Barford commented upon my post enquiring whether "archaeologists accepted Greek Cypriot looting of Alaas, Cyprus". This is a clarification of the logic of the Cypriot antiquities policy on looting.

Cypriot antiquities, Desmond Morris Collection - conflict antiquities from art market

In 1985, Desmond Morris published his collection of the Art of Ancient Cyprus, which he assembled from artefacts available on the international art market between 1967 and 1982 (Morris, 1985: 6).

All of the artefacts in the Desmond Morris Collection were probably looted; and about 1,056 (96.06%) were probably conflict antiquities, looted during the Cyprus Conflict. This may also hint at the state of the international art market during that period.

archaeologists accepted Greek Cypriot looting of Alaas, Cyprus?

Analysing the evidence from rescue excavations of Alaas, Cyprus, it appears that private collectors violated their secret agreement with archaeologists, and bought Greek Cypriot-looted antiquities (rather than reporting the looters to the Greek Cypriot police).

Worse, it seems that archaeologists accepted the looting and collecting (rather than reporting the collectors to the Greek Cypriot police).

archaeological destruction through looting, Dali Kafkallia, Cyprus

In 1972, John C. Overbeck and Stuart Swiny jointly published Two Cypriot Bronze Age Sites at Kafkallia (Dhali); Overbeck wrote about the Necropolis, and Swiny the Fortified Settlement. Their information from Dali Kafkallia hints at the amount of archaeological destruction done through looting.

Cypriot antiquities, von Post Collection, Medelhavsmuseet

This is another boring, for-the-record note, this time on pottery in a Swedish public museum (largely from a Swedish private collection, partly from a Greek Cypriot(?) antiquities dealer).

Cypriot antiquities, Archaeological Society of Athens Collection, National Archaeological Museum

This is just a short, uninformative, for-the-record post about the (lack of) find-spots, provenience, or provenance for the Mycenaean Cypriot antiquities in the Archaeological Society of Athens Collection in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, Greece.

Cypriot antiquities, Zintilis Collection

While unemployed, I am continuing to explore the illicit antiquities trade. Here, I see what can be learned from the Cypriot antiquities in the Thanos N. Zintilis Collection.

I find evidence that, at least in the 1950s and 1960s, the vast majority of the trade was always within the Greek Cypriot community (even during times of conflict); and, correspondingly, that the vast majority of the looting was in areas under the control of the Greek Cypriot police (not the Turkish Cypriot paramilitaries).

Clarification: U.S. Helsinki Commission blogging

Re-reading my blogging on the U.S. Helsinki Commission's hearing on destruction of cultural heritage in (northern, occupied) Cyprus, I found one part unclear and wanted to make a clarification.

women's participation in Cypriot archaeology: a mirage of parity

Two significant studies of gender inequities in Cypriot archaeology found women's participation and publishing historically low; but they also showed decades of progress, and encouraging signs of (potential, future) gender parity. However, I fear some of those signs may be somewhat of a mirage.

There is also gender division within the profession, with men overly-responsible for grand theory, and women overly-burdened with essential data collection and processing.

I think at least some signs of women's increasing contribution to Cypriot archaeology are actually signs of men's continued control of theoretical and methodological work (and women's continued performance of archaeology's "domestic" labour).

bones, screams, and theses

I agree with Ralph Waldo Emerson, 'sometimes a scream is better than a thesis'; but I can't submit a scream. And as Ogden Nash observed, 'progress might have been all right once, but it has gone on too long'; I just want it to be over and done with.