Roman glass in Larnaka's Pierides Museum

We were lured to this gem of a museum by the photo of a Roman glass fish in Andrew and Myrna's Eyewitness guide to Cyprus. Thank you for the loan of the book, dear friends. Glass has always had a seductive power over us; without this lure we might have missed what was one of the most stunning glass collections we've ever seen. At the end of this post, I'll include some of the other highlights of the museum. Labels were thin on the ground and hard to read, so the images of objects — neolithic or Roman or Byzantine or modern — aren't identified.

Here are the family benefactors whose antiquarian enthusiasm powered the conversion of their home into a museum. I won't attempt to pronounce on the looting controversy that rages whenever private collectors trump archaeologists in their acquisitions.

The whimsical fish:

Roman glass in all its translucent glory (some overlap here since both Michael and I were snapping away):

Four fabulous close-ups taken by Myrna and Andrew on their last visit to Larnaka:

Other highlights that took our fancy:

 

Note school group (very well-behaved!) in background.