First some background: in the nineteenth century many American museums (as well as colleges, universities and art schools relied on  plaster casts because stateside collections lacked the means to acquire original antiquities. Casts provided legitimacy for young American museums and educational institutions, as they brought the tangible, physical presence of the ancient world to visitors and students. The Metropolitan Museum of Art was an exception. The Met did not have to rely on casts because it possessed original ancient objects: the Cesnola collection of Cypriot antiquities, a major and foundational part of the Metropolitan's collection from its earliest days. When the Met opened the doors to its Fifth Avenue building in 1880, more than half of the of the floor space was taken up by ancient Cypriot artifacts sold to the institution by Cesnola. By offering for sale plaster casts of the Cypriot collection, the Met sought to elevate its collection of ancient art to the level of the great European collections of Greek and Roman art found in collections such as the Louvre, the British Museum and the Vatican. 

Plaster cast of over life-size bearded male votary (known as "Priest with Dove") Slater Memorial Museum, Norwich, Connecticut

Who bought the Cesnola casts? Tracking these down has been tricky.  While in the nineteenth century there were hundreds of cast collections associated with museums, colleges, universities, and art schools, many of these collections have been disbanded, destroyed, discarded or otherwise decommissioned. Furthermore, even in their heyday, cast collections were created to reflect and highlight the physical embodiment of Greek and Roman classical ideals. Cypriot sculpture seems not to have factored into that model, as surviving records do not reveal that Cypriot sculpture was ever part of most known cast collections. Further research can reveal how many Cypriot plaster casts were ultimately sold by the Met (and to whom), but for now, it seems sales from the 1902 catalogue were slim.

That having been said, there is an exceptional and intriguing collection of Cypriot casts in the collection of the Slater Memorial Museum in Norwich, Connecticut. Slater is unique for its well-maintained collection of plaster casts, open and accessible to the public, and part of the campus of the Norwich Free Academy. The seven works of Cypriote sculpture currently on display can all be linked to originals in Cesnola's collection at the Met (although not all are included in the 1902 sales catalogue). Records indicate only that the casts were acquired by the Slater in 1963 from the Wadsworth Athenaeum in Hartford, and neither archives in Norwich nor Hartford provide any additional clues about their original acquisition nor their transfer to Norwich. Nevertheless, with some additional work these intriguing and unusual casts can shed light on the expectations of the Metropolitan in promoting its Cypriot collection during its early years and role that Cypriot sculpture played in defining the concept of the "classical ideal" in the nineteenth century.

Plaster casts in the Slater Memorial Museum, Norwich, CT

Original sculptures in the Metropolitan Museum, New York

Right now, an exhibition on Cesnola is on display at the Visitor's Center of the An cient Kition Archaeological Site in Larnaca. It  shows leav es from the  opulent volume of photographs Cesnola published in 1870 to publi ci ze his vast collection of sculptures and ceramic vessels that he had extracted from the temple at Golgoi, Antiquités de Chypre, photographies des objets trouvés dans  le Temple de Vénus à Golgoi par le Général L.P. di Cesnola, Consul des Étas-Unis, 1870.   Among them, with the number 1, 95, is the photograph at right, with Cesnola himself seated be side the statue discussed in the text above. It is to the right of the window in the overview. Like the opulent volume itself, it announces the magnitude not only of the artifacts, but of Cesnola himself. 

Exhibition of Cesnola's photographs at the Visitors' Center, Ancient Kition Archaeological Site, Larnaca