12019-05-01T13:50:16-07:00Emilia Porubcin63ec028064958b3240cc8e4e010f355faa0c8e12332305plain2019-05-08T18:27:19-07:00Emilia Porubcin63ec028064958b3240cc8e4e010f355faa0c8e12Luigi di Cesnola was the first curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, serving from 1879 to 1904. Life as a soldier, educator, and archaeologist prepared him for this role. Leland Stanford was a patron of the Met, and Cesnola greatly encourage Leland Stanford Jr.'s growing interest in Old World archaeology during the boy's 1883 New York trip and provided a letter of introduction for him to take to museums in Europe. After Leland Jr.'s death, Cesnola sold a large collection of duplicate materials from the Met to Leland Sr. The majority were Cypriot, but some Egyptian antiquities were included.