Iris Love

Iris Cornelia Love (August 1, 1933 – April 17, 2020) was an American classical archaeologist, best known for the rediscovery of the Temple of Aphrodite in Knidos.

Early life and education

Love was born and raised on 713 Park Avenue in Lenox Hill, Manhattan to Cornelius Love, a diplomat and investment banker descended from Alexander Hamilton and from Captain Cook, and Audrey Josephthal, a great-granddaughter of Meyer Guggenheim. Her parents collected art and antiques, Her grandmother, Edyth Guggenheim Josephthal, left her a trust fund.

She was educated at the Brearley School in New York and the Madeira School in McLean, Virginia, and in 1955, she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Smith College. with funding from New York University assisted by wealthy family friends and foundations. this was confirmed by inscriptions found the following year. After Love presented her results at the annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America, it excited international attention and visits to the excavation site by many famous guests, including Mick and Bianca Jagger.

Love's discoveries in Knidos also included a Minoan settlement, in 1977; she later turned to Magna Graecia, primarily looking for other shrines of Aphrodite along the Gulf of Naples, but in 1986, after the Achille Lauro incident, the Italian government restricted civilian access to the Monte di Dio, where she had planned to dig for the Temple of Aphrodite at Parthenope. In 1982 she rediscovered a temple of Aphrodite in Ancona, at the northernmost point of Greek settlement in Italy. and she was also part-owner of Wasabi, a grandson of Malachy who was the 2021 winner. She lived for 15 years with journalist Liz Smith, dividing her time between New York and Italy, where she also had a relationship with designer and artist Bice Brichetto. and she was the first American to be made a Fellow of the Institute of the History and Archaeology of the Magna Grecia in Naples.