Ancient Cyprus in UK museums – unexpected journeys, untold stories

Dr Anna Reeve

Research Fellow, Institute of Classical Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London

The material legacies of excavation and collecting in Cyprus can be seen today in many British museums. The British in Cyprus – travellers, diplomats, colonial officials, guests and temporary residents – took the opportunity to bring antiquities back with them, while in the UK, networks of scholars, collectors, institutions, dealers, artists and others drew in and circulated antiquities, which often came to rest in the local museums where they remain.

Some of the histories underpinning museum collections are well known and much studied, while others are perhaps more surprising. Together, they speak to the long history of British involvement with Cypriot archaeology, and its material con-sequences. By looking at the ways in which ancient objects came from Cyprus to the UK, and their historic movements through private collections and the public spaces of the marketplace, we can shed new light on today’s museum collections and the stories they have to tell.