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New York--Looted antiquities, cultural objects, and treasures have long been the objects of desire not only for private collectors but often of some famed public collections. In an age when countries demand the return of their cultural legacy from world-class institutions, it's a pleasant contradiction that New York's venerable Metropolitan Museum of Art has opened new galleries housing a singularly splendid collection of Cypriot art which would politely be described as "having some political baggage."
Depending on one's viewpoint, the exhaustive collection of Consul Luigi Palma de Cesnola, was either excavated, looted, purchased, or saved from the Mediterranean island of Cyprus from which most was shipped in 1873. Luigi de Cesnola, the American Consul on Cyprus in the twilight of Ottoman Turkish rule, was to put it bluntly an avid collector and excavator of nearly anything he could get his hands on.
According to Prof. Vassos Karageorgis, during Cesnola's tenure "He was able to export the greatest number of antiquities that have ever been exported from Cyprus. His life was full of adventure and his deeds left an indelible mark of Cypriot archeology and art." A minimum of 35,000 pieces left the island.
His story reads like a adventure thriller, and a controversial new book "The Consul Luigi de Cesnola 1832-1904: Life and Deeds" by Greek Cypriot historian Anna Marangou, recounts an intriguing saga blending tales of adventure, intrigue, and deception.
Cesnola, an Italian who first served as an officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War, got himself appointed U.S. Consul to Cyprus between 1865 and 1876. Anna Marangou describes him as "a businessman with a goal of fame and gain who later sold his collection to the Metropolitan. ...he was not the first or the last to export antiquities. The main accusation is the way he handled the antiques. There was a huge demand for the art." The pieces date between 2500 BC to 300 AD.
Clearly de Cesnola was a "man of his age" and to use a neo-Clintonian defense, "doing what others were also doing." He amassed and exported ancient treasures which in this case were then sold to become part of the core collection of the newly opened Metropolitan Museum in March 1880. Consul Cesnola, a genuine character of a guided age, became the Museum's first director a post he held for twenty-five years.
Soon the public tired of the Cypriot art and in 1928, the Museum decided to auction a vast portion (30,000 pieces) of the collection with a large number of artifacts going to Sarasota, Florida with most of the rest dispersed and still unaccounted for.
The seemingly perennial case of the Elgin Marbles in the British Museum is a case and point which has brought British and Greeks to the brink--both sides arguing that the property removed from Athens in the early 19th century by Lord Elgin be returned to Greece. Elgin, British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, received a firman or edict of permission from the city's Ottoman rulers, something which Henry Merryman, Professor emeritus of International Law at Stanford argues "the Firman gave Elgin good title."
Though a recent poll in The Economist of London shows that if there were a vote in the House of Commons, 66 percent (mostly Labour) would support the Marbles return to Greece while 34 percent (mostly conservatives) oppose the move. The Economist advises, "if there is to be any change in the present status of the Elgin Marbles, it will not be brought about by diplomacy or legal action, but as a result of political opinion and political change in Britain."
Back to New York. I asked Cypriot UN Ambassador Sotos Zackheos that given the enduring case of the Elgin Marbles, what would the future status be of the Cesnola Collection now in the Metropolitan in a setting sponsored by the Popular Bank of Cyprus and endorsed by the Greek Cypriot government? He said the matter is "not under active discussion--the government is very pleased the Cypriot art is there for all to see."
Clearly the Cesnola collection has regained a position in the Metropolitan from where it started in 1880. Today six hundred of the1,600 treasures are in the new galleries. Since the Greek Cypriots and Popular Bank have given the benediction for the new wing, it seems the Cesnola Collection has finally found a permanent home.
John J. Metzler is a U.N. correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. He writes weekly for World Tribune.com.
