Artefacts in Time and Place. Archive Data Concerning the Italian Archaeological Activity in Cyprus (1869-1871)

The unification of Italy in March 1861 produced a reorganisation of the central administration and the diplomatic network, including, obviously, the apparatus in the service in the Mediterranean basin. The diplomatic activity of Riccardo Colucci on the island of Cyprus took place between 1868 and 1872, a short period but eventful with regard to the political and administrative situation of the reign of Italy as well as of the Ottoman empire. During his stay in Cyprus, Riccardo Colucci amassed a collection of antiquities, the major part of which form part of the Cypriote collection donated in 1870-1871 to the National Archaeological Museum of Florence probably because the city, at that time, was the capital of Italy. A smaller group of objects (less than 100) were donated by Colucci in 1871 to the Archaeological National Museum of Madrid (where is actually), on the occasion of the passage of a Spanish scientific expedition to Greece and Levant (financed by Amadeus I, Duke of Aosta and King of Spain) that landed in Larnaca from the ship Arapiles in August of 1871.