Ancient Art from Cyprus: The Cesnola Collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art

The most important collection of Cypriot antiquities outside Cyprus is the Cesnola Collection at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, assembled by Luigi Palma di Cesnola, the first director of the museum. Cesnola was a Civil War veteran who went to Cyprus in 1866 and, in excavations there, sought to rival the finds of Heinrich Schliemann at Troy. Now, on the occasion of the redesign of the Metropolitan's Cypriot galleries, comes this gorgeously illustrated catalogue of some 500 objects, ranging from glass, stone sculpture, and terra-cotta figurines to lamps, pottery, and jewelry.The Cesnola Collection includes works that are among the finest examples of Cypriot art from the prehistoric, Archaic, Classical/Hellenistic, and Roman periods. The first scholarly catalogue since 1914 of a large selection from the Cesnola Collection, this volume will be an invaluable reference.