Cesnola Collections

Cypriote antiquities in N. Y. Metropolitan Museum. Collected by Gen. Luigi Palma di Cesnola, b. 1832. U. S. Consul to Cyprus 1865; director of the Museum 1877. The collections consist of statues, terra-cotta idols, and figurines from temples, shrines, and tombs; of gla , pottery, gems, and jewelry, also from tombs; and of other miscellaneous antiquities. The archæologic value of all these objects is due to the peculiar position of Cyprus in ancient history as one of the connecting links between Greek and Oriental civilization. No other collection so conclusively demonstrates the Oriental origins of Greek art. Their value as museum exhibits is, however, damaged by confused arrangement, having no reference either to chronology, style, or locality of finds.