The Cyprus collection is one of the three most significant in the UK (the others being in the British and Ashmolean Museums). Chronologically it reaches from the Neolithic to the Late Roman Period, underlining the continuing importance of the island in the Mediterranean throughout history.

It comprises pottery, figurines in clay and copper alloy, glass vessels, stone sculpture and inscriptions are all included in the Cypriot collection, ranging in date from the Early Bronze Age.

Today research and documentation is still on-going with the aim of bringing to light - through the objects - the fundamental role the island has played in trade across the Mediterranean region, as well as the way its insularity has shaped a unique cultural identity, in which indigenous cultural forms were preserved and transmitted whilst new ideas and external influences were simultaneously assimilated.