Ancient earrings come home

THE SON of a British archaeologist has returned two ancient golden earrings found by his father in Kouklia to the Department of Antiquities in Cyprus.

Dr Tim Milford, the son of professor Terence Milford, personally delivered the earrings to the director of the Department of Antiquities, Sophocles Hadjisavva, who hailed his gesture as an example for others to follow even after the earrings were in the family of the professor for years.

Maria Hadjicosti, Curator of Antiquities, emphasised yesterday that, “were it not for the actions of Dr Milford, others would not have been able to appreciate the artefacts in a museum.”

This is the first case of ancient artefacts voluntarily being returned to Cyprus.
Terence Milford died 25 years ago. His son found a box belonging to his father with the golden earrings inside. The name of his father was on the box along with “British Museum, Edinburgh”. Dr Milford did not have any clue as to the origins of the earrings, apart from the initials KTA (code for the archaeological site in Kouklia).

Milford came to Cyprus and visited the Cyprus Museum, which confirmed the earrings were Cypriot, from the late Bronze Age and would have usually been worn by women in towns and urban centres of the time.

Old colonial legislation used to state that half the antiquities found in Cyprus could be kept by the finder unless it was invaluable that the artefacts remain in Cyprus. New legislation in Cyprus prohibited the export of antiquities.

Hadjicosti believes in the principle of returning artefacts to their place of origin, citing the landmark dispute between Greece and the British Museum over the Elgin Marbles taken from the Parthenon.

“In my opinion, the Elgin Marbles should be returned as it is a very important monument that belongs to Greece. There are many artefacts in the British Museum belonging to Cyprus that we would like back, but the Cyprus government have not put forward an application for this, so we have lost many,” she says.