The Deputy Minister of Culture, Vasiliki Kassianidou, leaves today for London and from there she will travel on Sunday to Los Angeles, for the repatriation of Cypriot antiquities that were illegally exported in the past decades. “Lately there has been a growing trend of returning antiquities,” she says.
In a statement to Cyprus News Agency (CNA), Kassianidou said that she is going to London both for the repatriation of an artefact and to participate in a workshop on the latest developments in Cypriot archaeology, which is co-organised by the Cultural Centre of the High Commission of Cyprus in London and the British Museum. On the occasion of the conference, which will be held on Saturday at the High Commission, the Deputy Minister of Culture noted that she will visit the British Museum, where she will have meetings with the Curator of the Cypriot collection and other members of the Museum, as well as members of the Cypriot community.
Kassianidou told CNA that she will receive an artefact in the High Commission which was handed over by a Cypriot who lives in London. As she said, it is an important Bronze Age pottery. She added that a few days ago some 100 other antiquities were handed over to the High Commission, for which officials of the Department of Antiquities visited London to begin the process of packing and repatriation.
Kassianidou said also that she would be going to Los Angeles on Sunday, noting that the reason for her trip is twofold. As she explained, she is going there to complete the repatriation process of Cypriot antiquities, which had begun in 2018, a process halted due to the coronavirus pandemic.
According to the Deputy Minister of Culture, it is the collection of the owner of the American company Cyprus Mines Corporation (CMC), Harvey Mudd, which includes 266 objects that Mudd had bought in the 1930s and 1940s in US, when Cyprus was under British rule. The company was founded in 1916 and was active in Cyprus until 1976, Kassianidou said, adding that when Mudd passed away in the 1950s, his family founded a college (Harvey Mudd College) in his memory, to which they donated the collection of Cypriot antiquities. When his son passed away, his collection was also donated to the college.
Referring to the process of repatriation of this collection, the Deputy Minister of Culture explained to CNA that when she was Director of the Archaeological Research Unit (ARU) of the University of Cyprus and because of her research interest in ancient mines, she had contacted Harvey Mudd College, asking to study the collection of Cypriot antiquities.
In this context, she continued, Harvey Mudd’s granddaughter Victoria contacted her, in consultation with the University’s Board of Trustees, to express her desire to return the collection to Cyprus and her belief that the collection should be donated to the University of Cyprus in order to be used for research and teaching purposes.
Kassianidou also said that she travelled to Los Angeles in December 2018 with the then Rector of the University of Cyprus, Constantinos Christofides, to sign the agreement to donate the collection to the University of Cyprus.
“This was the first steps in the repatriation process,” she noted, adding that the original agreement provided for the Department of Antiquities to cover half of the costs of returning the antiquities to Cyprus. However, as she explained to CNA, the coronavirus pandemic overturned the plans and caused delays in the process of repatriation of the antiquities.
Furthermore, the Deputy Minister of Culture said that this time the Department of Antiquities is fully responsible for the repatriation of these objects, covering all the costs of the process.
In addition, she said that the most important object in the Harvey Mudd collection is a bronze oxhide ingot, which dates back to the Late Bronze Age (1500-1050 BC). At the same time, she pointed out that this was the form in which Cypriot copper was exported, adding that only 3 such oxhide ingots have been found in Cyprus so far. The first is in the British Museum, the second in the Cyprus Museum, while the third is in the collection of Harvey Mudd, who bought it in 1936.
“Lately there has been a growing trend of returning antiquities either from people who have inherited antiquities from their parents and grandparents, or antiquities found at auctions by the Department of Antiquities in cooperation with the Police and the Embassies of Cyprus abroad,” the Deputy Minister of Culture stressed.
In addition to the process of repatriating the Harvey Mudd collection, the Deputy Minister of Culture will have a meeting with the Getty Conservation Institute, which she describes as “a very important cultural institution in the United States that specializes in mosaic conservation and with which the Department of Antiquities has been working closely for years.” She says that with funding from this institute, a study and management plan for the Paphos archaeological site was prepared, as well as a tender for the roofs to cover the mosaics.
