TWO 13th-century Byzantine frescoes finally arrived home back in Cyprus yesterday, decades after their removal from a church in the occupied north following the 1974 Turkish invasion.
The frescoes had been stolen from the church of St. Evphemianos in Lysi, and cut into 38 pieces by thieves intending to sell them on the black market.
"Today marks a historic occasion with the return of something of such great value for cultural antiquity, paving the way for the return of other antiquities," said conservator for the antiquities department, Stella Pissaridou.
One of the murals, that used to adorn the dome, depicts Christ Pantocrator surrounded by angels while the other – an apse -- shows the Virgin Mary and the archangels Michael and Gabriel.
The frescoes had been acquired by the Houston, Texas-based Menil Foundation on behalf of the Church of Cyprus in 1984 and had been on loan under an agreement that ended in February.
The frescoes were stolen by Turkish art dealer Aydin Dikmen who shipped them to Germany.
Dikmen claimed they came from an abandoned church in southern Turkey, and prepared to sell them on the black-market.
Told by a London art dealer that the fragmented frescoes were available for purchase, Dominique de Menil grew suspicious and began researching the frescoes’ provenance.
After further research de Menil learned that the frescoes had been stolen from their home in a small chapel in Lysi.
Hundreds of religious artefacts had been looted from churches in the illegally occupied north of the island during and after the Turkish invasion.
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