Filenews 10 July 2022
The Department of Antiquities announces that another very important repatriation has been crowned with success. It is the despotic icon of the Enthroned Christ, which dates back to the late 15th or early 16th century and comes from the occupied Church of Antiphonitis in Kalograia in the kyrenia province.
According to a statement issued on Saturday, the repatriation of the icon from Zurich, Switzerland, was achieved after many years of efforts, which have intensified in recent years, successfully ending in one of the most well-known, but also complex, cases of repatriation.
The case of the desecration of the church of Antiphonitis by the Turkish occupying army and their associates and the sale of the frescoes, portable icons and fragmented wood carvings, the fate of many of which is still unknown, proves once again the devastating consequences of the Turkish invasion on the cultural heritage of the island, the statement said.
The Church of Cyprus, which located the icon at an auction abroad, following information from the Director of the Kykkos Museum Stylianos Perdikis, informed the Cyprus Police, which proceeded, in cooperation with the Attorney General, in all the required procedures, with the result that in 2014 the Swiss Police Authorities proceeded to confiscate the icon.
This was followed by all the required legal procedures, which have intensified over the last three years with a positive outcome. Immediately afterwards, the Department of Antiquities began the procedures for the repatriation of the icon. The repatriation was made possible after the concerted efforts of the Department of Antiquities, the Cyprus Police and the Legal Service in close cooperation with the Church of Cyprus and the competent Police Authorities of Switzerland.
The delivery was made on July 7th by the Public Prosecutor of the Canton of Zurich, Bernhard Hecht, and the receipt by the Director of the Department of Antiquities Dr. Marina Solomidou-Ieronymidou and the Head of the Office for combating Illegal Occupation and Trafficking of Antiquities of the Police Headquarters Senior Lieutenant Michalis Gavriilidis. Also present at the hand-over was the Conservator of the Department of Antiquities Dr. Eleftherios Charalambous. On July 8, the icon was safely transferred to Cyprus accompanied by the aforementioned and is in the Cyprus Museum.
The conservation status of the icon is very good, but it will be checked by the Conservators of the Department of Antiquities, so that it can be handed over to His Beatitude within the week, until it becomes possible to return and reposition it in the church of Antiphonitis where it belongs.
The Church of Antiphonitis, which is declared an Ancient Monument under the Antiquities Law, was probably founded in the 12th century, belongs to the type of island octagonal temple with a dome and is the only one that survives in Cyprus in very good condition.
The monument records later phases, which date back to the 15th and 16th centuries with very important frescoes and portable icons. Unfortunately, after the Turkish invasion, the Turkish looters desecrated the monument, largely removed the frescoes, icons and wood-carved decoration and sold them illegally on the international market.
Many of these frescoes were found in the possession of the well-known Turkish looter Aydin Dikmen, a number of which were gradually repatriated. From time to time, some of the remarkable icons of the iconostasis were repatriated, with the most important repatriation in 1998 of the despotic icon of the Enthroned Virgin Mary Vrefokratousa.
The Department of Antiquities assures that it will continue its intensive efforts to save our cultural heritage, which suffered incalculable damage as a consequence of the Turkish invasion and stresses the importance of cooperation in this difficult struggle.
It also calls on citizens to contribute by transmitting information related to the theft and illegal trafficking of cultural goods to the Department of Antiquities or to the Cyprus Police, either by name or anonymously, thus contributing to the difficult and time-consuming task of identifying cultural goods and claiming them through complex legal procedures.
