Rottiers to the Dutch government, the third was gathered by the colonel on a government-backed mission with the express purpose of collecting art.
The Department of Education, Arts and Sciences Enzo in turn wrote to archaeology professor Caspar Reuvens, asking him to evaluate the collection and give advice.
Worse was the discovery that the best piece in the collection turned out not to be a bronze Greek original, but a modern cast of a marble head.
It is unclear how much of this Rottiers knew, but it is certain that he had deliberately added the bronze head to the collection in Antwerp, and that his son had not found nor bought it.
During the expedition Rottiers organizes a small excavation on Melos, makes an elaborate study of the medieval architecture on Rhodes, and eventually does deliver antiquities to the Leiden museum in several shipments.