Immediately after the Collection is embarked you will be pleased to make the best of your way back to England. Having the greatest reliance on your judgment, I concur with Mr. Hawkins in authorizing you to purchase, on account of the Trustees, any object or objects which you might think a very desirable addition for our Museum of Antiquities, to an amount not exceeding altogether £100, drawing for the same as above. Should any more important and peculiarly desirable purchase offer itself, please to make forthwith a special report on it, to be submitted to the Trustees, for their orders.
It may be superfluous to add that it will be desirable that, on your return, you should lay before the Trustees a report on any point that you may think of importance, respecting the public or private Collections which may fall under your notice, and the regulations under which the former are preserved, and made accessible to learned men and artists, as well as the public at large.
Be so good as to write to me fully and frequently for the information of the Trustees, and give me the earliest notice of the collection being on board the vessel which is to bring it to England.
Mr. Fagan will assist you as far as in his power with his advice and knowledge of men and things at Naples. I enclose, moreover, a letter for Mr. Petre, now in charge of Her Majesty’s Mission, and another for Mr. Craven, one of its members.
Believe me, &c., &c.,
A. Panizzi.”
On the 3rd of October, Mr. Oldfield wrote from Naples giving his private opinion of the collection, which he evidently did not consider of very great value. “The glass and the bronzes,” he said, “are of considerable beauty and interest, but the sculpture as a whole unworthy of acceptance.”
A notable incident should be here inserted. When a certain R. Gargiulo was preparing the Catalogue of the Collection, it was discovered that four frescoes, of not much importance, had upon them the stamp of the Museo Borbonico. They had, in fact, been purloined from that Museum by an agent, or ally, of the individual from whom Sir William bought them. Sir William resolved to return them to their lawful owners, but died before carrying out his intention. Mr. Fagan, with Lord Palmerston’s sanction, wrote to the Neapolitan authorities immediately afterwards, informing them of the discovery; stating also, of course, how Sir William had unwittingly purchased objects which he afterwards discovered had been abstracted from Pompeii, and returning them in Lord Palmerston’s name. After a few days, Signor d’Aloe called on Mr. Fagan, and, stating that the matter had been reported to the King, Ferdinand II., begged that Lord Palmerston would retain the frescoes. Consequent upon this, and upon the letter which communicated the royal request, the frescoes were accepted.
The collection consists altogether of 1,571 pieces; of these the most interesting portions are the painted vases, the bronzes, and the specimens of Greek and Roman glasses. Special mention should also be made of a magnificent Krater, with a painting of the death of Hippolytus; a very fine and rare globular vase, with an ornamental cover, should be separately mentioned; and a Lekythos representing the judgment of Paris. Amongst the bronzes, a small but fine bust of a faun, and specimens of Greek armour from Ruvo, comprising a breast and back plate, and a very beautiful bronze statue of the youthful Bacchus, deposited in the Museum by Sir William during his life-time.
In the spring of 1857, Panizzi gave his serious attention to the cause of the staff of the Museum, and to the increase of their emoluments. Hitherto the servants of the Trustees, as it has been already observed, were not treated or paid in a commensurate manner by the Government, and no superannuation allowance was granted; and it was properly remarked at the time that, to carry out any effectual measure of reform, it would be necessary to increase the value of the appointments—thus holding out an inducement for good men to remain, and giving the service of the Museum the tone of a profession.