the Cycladic Keros harpist, companion to the Keros flute-player

During a legitimate and documented excavation led by German archaeologist Ulrich Köhler in 1884, these delicate, miniature masterpieces were discovered, intact, in a grave, and are celebrated as the earliest known depictions of musicians in the Aegean world.

Carved from marble from the neighbouring island Paros (lychnites was a pure, fine-grained, semi-translucent white marble that was highly prized by sculptors for its luminous quality) ca 2800–2300 BCE - the Golden Era of Cycladic art - these pieces represent an astonishing leap forward in ancient artistic achievement. While the vast majority of Cycladic figures are flat, two-dimensional female silhouettes, these rare male figures break away into the third dimension, capturing a sense of movement, space, concentration and absorption.

The Harpist sits gracefully on an elegant throne, his head tilted back in rapture. He plays prehistoric triangular frame-harp known as a trigonon. The original piece is 22.5cm tall. Although he is small, the composition reaches outwards, because it includes the entire structure of his throne, and the large frame of his harp. A soundbox rests on the his right thigh, with a delicate frame arching away from his body. It also features the prominent frontal extension at the top apex of the trigonon, which was a common device on prehistoric harps used to secure strings or help project sound.

The Flute Player stands poised, holding a double pipe to his lips. Slightly shorter than the harpist, the original stands at 20.5cm tall, on a small integrated base. Although he is known as the 'flute-player', he is in fact playing the diaulos, two separate, distinct pipes connected at a single mouthpiece. It worked more like a modern oboe or bagpipe, using a vibrating double-reed to generate a sharp, powerful, and deeply penetrating tone. Playing the diauloi required incredible skill. The musician used both hands to cover finger holes on the separate pipes, which allowed him to play a tune on one pipe while using the second pipe to create a continuous drone or a secondary harmonic accompaniment. The double-reeded diaulos later became the signature instrument of the satyrs, of Silenus, and of the god Dionysus, as represented in later Greek art and pottery.

After their discovery, the musicians were immediately taken to Athens for safety, where they remain as highlights of the Prehistoric Collection in the National Archaeological Museum.

5000 years ago, on a group of islands in the Aegean sea, artisans were carving sculpture, entirely by hand, from pure, local, white marble. What they left behind is a masterclass in elegant, symmetrical design. Works of art that radiate a profound stillness and haunting simplicity.

Ancient Cycladic art remains one of archaeology's continuing mysteries. With their smooth faces, folded arms, tilting heads and elongated noses, these minimalist silhouettes do not look ancient at all. Stripped of all distracting details, eyes, and expressions, they capture the essence of the human form, using clean geometric lines.

The group of islands, numbering 30 or so, included Naxos, Paros and Amorgos, sources of superb marble. The ancient Greeks, centuries later, called these islands the Kyklades, imagining them as falling within a circle (kyklos) centred around the sacred island of Delos, birthplace of Apollo and his twin sister Artemis, and the site of their holiest sanctuary.

Schematic figurines came first, including those in a violos/violin design. Then came a Golden Age of Cycladic art, from ca 2800-2300 BCE. The elegant figurines that survive today, and which inspired modern western artists such as Picasso, Modigliani and Brancusi were carved during this period of a mere 500 years. To this period also belong the Keros pieces, including a small number of breathtaking sculptures of musicians, such as the Harpist and Flute-Player.

You will notice on original marble figurines that the feet are carved pointing downwards, so they would have been physically incapable of standing without support. Their backs were flat and smooth, which reinforces the theory that they were designed to recline, or to be held. When buried with the deceased, they were lying next to them.

No written records remain, so the true purpose of these figurines remain an archaeological enigma. Female figurines have have swollen bellies or lines drawn across the abdomen, which might suggest that they are symbols of fertility, life-giving energy, or rebirth. They were mainly excavated from stone-lined graves, where they were buried lying down next to the deceased. Perhaps they were spiritual protectors, created to escort souls to the next world.

In the mid 20^th century there was a massive wave of illegal looting of the Cyclades, particularly the island of Keros. Over the last few years, Greece has managed to secure the repatriation and reclamation of Cycladic originals, now on display in the Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens. Most recently, an agreement in 2022 transferred legal ownership of 161 Cycladic artefacts from the private New York collection of billionnaire Leonard Stern back to the Greek state. The collection is housed at the Metropolitan Museum on a long-term loan, and the pieces will gradually be returning home to Greece during the coming decades.

It's All Greek's Cycladic pieces in bronze and marble are copies of originals in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens and in the Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens.

The late Kostas Semitekolo, in addition to being the genius who produced the bronze collection at It's All Greek, was also an exceptional sculptor of marble Cycladic art. One off, unique pieces. Customers between 2000 and 2016 can count themselves blessed indeed, if they bought one of these from It's All Greek. Thankfully, the bronzes and marbles on the website are copies of some of those. I have kept some of his replica Cycladic pieces because I cannot bear to part with them. They are beautiful beyond belief.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the tiny, remote, uninhabited Aegean island of Keros became the target of a massive looting wave. Smugglers unearthed hundreds of deliberately broken marble fragments—torsos, limbs, and stylized heads—and quietly dispersed them into the global black market.

Decades later, in 1987 and then from 2006, scientific excavations of the sanctuary at Kavos on Keros, under the aegis of Professor Colin Renfrew of Cambridge University revealed a staggering truth. The focus of his study were the thousands of unmatching fragments, which turned out not to have been broken by the looters, but had been shattered thousands of years previously on neighbouring islands as part of a grand, prehistoric ritual, before being taken by boat to Keros.

Academic research, combined with aggressive forensic archaeological investigation in the last 30 years revealed that 90% of all known Cycladic figurines in private collections had zero legal excavation history, and were the direct result of plundered graves. Stolen Cycladic pieces sitting in the private estates of billionnaires were tracked, reclaimed, and illicit dealers convicted. Meanwhile back on Keros and neighbouring Cycladic islands, Greek archaeologists and researchers managed to talk to shepherds and locals, which led to their being able to trace the physical smuggling route from Keros straight to international dealers in Paris, Basel, and New York.

Ongoing international repatriation efforts have successfully reclaimed many fragments of the Keros Hoard, allowing them finally to return home to Greece, where they are proudly exhibited at the Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens.

The famous Keros Harpist and Flute Player are celebrated as the earliest known depictions of musicians in the Aegean world. They, however, were discovered over 140 years ago in 1884, during a legal and documented excavation by the German archaeologist Ulrich Köhler, who found them intact and together in a grave. They were transferred immediately to Athens, escaping entirely the 20th century looting, and continue to be the highlights of the Prehistoric Collection at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.

Made in Greece at the workshop of the Lioulias family, with whom It's All Greek is proud to have been working since 2004.

The material is a lightweight plaster polymer compound with a light ochre finish applied by hand. There may, therefore, be a slight variation in colour from piece to piece. The piece is mounted on a lightweight polished resin base.