The Sunday herald. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1866-1887, 1882-07-23

The Cyutrrs fer August, probably by its
editor, MIR. Glider takes band In the controversy
over the Metropolitan Museum OF Art which must lie
regarded as crushing to General di Cesnola unless he
develops If defense which utterly out
of his power The interest OF the magazine In the
questions originally started By Messs Feuardent and
Cook lay In the fact that Of the Cypriote anti
qules In The CesnOa collection, which Is the central
(but not intended to be the SOLE feature of the Museum
photographed as Illustrations for the series Of
articles by Mrs Mitchell en- the history of antique
sculpture, soon after, the ant department of the
magazine received letters nom Mr.. a. u. Savage,
formerly General cesnOls assistant and his advocate
in the first disputes the antiquities saying that
four Of the objects photographed contained Ave "rcs-
'tcratons' - more OF less serious. Word sent to
MIS- Mitchell, now abroad, who replied that she was
little surprised At the revelation after her own unsas-
factory experience Mt the Museum, and con
cuding: ''I hope that Cesnola will be made
''to feel the great wrong he has done science
and the American people In thus impos-
ling upon them patChed-up rcstoratlons of
homeless figures The magazine then made in
vestigatons on its own account and appears with a
long letter from MIR. Savage, together with others
from DR.. Howard Crosby and the authorities of Johns
Hopkins University indOrsing his character In the
highest terms Mr.. Savage resigned his position III
the museum on account of discoveries made by him
self of bad faith In his chief after the first invesllga-
tion of the Feulrdent charges aud account of the
discharge of two anitors 10y Ccsno because they had
inCautiOusy told the truth of what they knew about
the Cypriote collection. In brief it established
that although CesnOla dII dig up with great deal of
energy while American consul at Cyprus, the curl.
Gus collection part Of which he brought home after
selling all lie could to European museums, lie led
by his ignorance OF archaeology and desire to make
good show Into ruthless of mendng, patch
Ing, building up, httlng together of incOngruUu,
parts and the Ike which unfortunately denriycs his
:" nnd' OF almost all historical veracity and value.
At the same time lie seems to have omitted to pre-.
serve record Of how or where ths articles wcr,
found whether In temple tomb and In trying TO In
vent apt stories has failed 10 make them agree IN
later aud earlier editions Of his own hand Al
this might be depOrlble without being culpabe, hui
General dl CesnOa appears further TO have tiled tC
cover 1t up by deliberate COunterfeltug work the
statues, and fasehood In his public statements when
| charged with deception.
lie now holds the four positions of Director and
Secretary of the Museum, one o( the trustees and
member of the executive committee, besides having
received il3O, 900 for his collections brought to New
York. In addition to what he obtained from sale
elsewhere. originally he was y soldier ol fortune,
having fought In Italy, the Crimea, and our Clyi
war for which last service he probably received his
appointment consul. The opinion ON his conduct
is doubtless well summed up bY Mr. Glider In saying,
| "W While General di CesnOla was undoubtediysthC
''man to get the collection, lie not the tC
''take care OF It," New York, hy the way, like
most big disorderly Babcls, has bad luck With it'
attempts for culture In literature, SCIENCE and art
They make money there 0n more on less dubious
Ways without knowing how 20 spend 1t. There Is NJ
picture gallery to compare with our Corcoran, The
libraries ugeniousy arranged to be useless TO thC
public, even Central Park Is horror to the lover u
nature pure and undenlcj, aud now the costly Metro
poltan Museum receives this dreadful black eye from