The so-called Keros Hoard, excavated on the island of Keros, consisted of at least 350 figurines dating to ca 2800-2300 BC. These originals were taken out of Greece in the 1950s and distributed to various museums and private collections. The fate of many of them is unknown. 81 of the pieces were repatriated and are now on display in the Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens.
Original Cycladic figurines, carved in marble, were produced during the third millennium BC. They are remarkable for their abstract simplicity, which inspired Picasso, Modigliani, and Moore.
Cycladic art originates from a group of islands in the southwestern Aegean, comprising some thirty small islands, including Naxos and Paros, which were known for the quality of their marble. The ancient Greeks called these islands the Kyklades, imagining them as falling within a circle (kyklos) around the sacred island of Delos, the site of the holiest sanctuary to Apollo and the island thought to be the birthplace of the god and his twin sister Artemis.