History

12 Oca 1931

Alfiros of the Swedish Expedition used all his contacts to secure and protect antiquities he found at the most unexpected places

 

Alfiros of the Swedish Expedition used all his contacts to secure and protect antiquities he found at the most unexpected places:

I recall that I wrote my last letter just when I had got up from bed for the first time in a week and was on my way to a meeting with the mighty bishop in Kyrenia who in reality is the soul of the Greek anti-English movement. He is just as feared and hated by both Greeks and Englishmen, and is dictator over a domain far greater than the bishopric itself.  But we got on very well right away, maybe mostly because I addressed him as εν (α)πλήν καθαρεύουσανright from the start. My errand was to secure his help against certain churchwardens in Galini to remove an Aphrodite statue from the church wall where it has been immured since time immemorial. The bishop promised to set everything right for me – but – the statue was to be put back again and under no conditions be brought to the British-ruled museum in Nicosia. All my most moving attempts to convince him, bringing to mind the beautiful statue, were absolutely in vain and we parted on the stairs of the Episcopal palace while exchanging mutual marks of respect, he expressing his thanks for what the expedition had done for Cyprus, I in at least 20 different ways expressing the same thought: mine and all of our deep thankfulness for the great acceptance the expedition had met all over Cyprus. Ο Πανιερώτατος took my hand repeatedly and waved goodbye.