This exquisite limestone head has its back surface unworked and probably belonged to a relief of votive or funerary character. The facial features, the hairstyle and the introspective expression recall Lysippian models of Greek sculpture in the 4th c. BC. They are also strongly reminiscent of the numerous terracotta heads discovered in the cenotaph of Nikokreon, the last king of Salamis before its conquest by the Ptolemies. Because of its exceptional quality, the head is considered as the work of a Greek sculptor or even an import from Greece. Towards the end of the Cypro-Archaic period, Cypriot sculpture began to move away from Near Eastern models and to receive pronounced influences from the sculpture of Ionia. During the 5th and 4th c. BC, the Cypriot workshops turned towards the major artistic centres of Classical Greece, particularly Attica, and started to assimilate Greek currents and styles, yet retaining several local iconographic traditions (for example, the Cypriots never adopted the nudity of Greek statuary). However, Cypriot sculpture did not succeed in competing with Greek glyptic art and frequently prosperous Cypriot citizens preferred statues and reliefs imported from Greece.