LOOTING OF CYPRUS' CULTURAL PROPERTY
Mhitsos**48
The Exhibition
For almost thirty years after the Turkish invasion into Cyprus,
information about the condition of Christian monuments in the occupied
part of the island or the fate of their mobile relics (icons,
manuscripts, consecrated vessels, old-prints etc) was very scarce.
Isolated information that became available at times talked about great
destruction, looting and vandalism of churches, desecration of
monasteries, conversion of churches into stables and the stealing of
their icons and holy vessels. These reports began to be substantiated
when byzantine icons from churches in occupied Cyprus, as well as other
antiquities (the Hatziprodromou collection for instance) were located in
art-markets of Western Europe and America. Looted Byzantine treasures
from Cyprus then surfaced as far away as the Far East (e.g. the
iconostasis doors of the Hagia Paraskeve Church in the village of
Peristerona, Famagusta, was found in Osaka, Japan), while the discovery
in the United States of the detached mosaics from Panagia Kanakaria in
Lythrankome shocked the world scientific community. There followed the
detaching of the frescoes from the church of Hagios Ephemianos in Lysi
and their transportation to the Menil Foundation in Texas, as well as of
many other wall-paintings and mosaics found in private collections abroad.
The Church of Cyprus and the legitimate authorities of the
Republic of Cyprus, as well as private individuals and institutions have
since been active in repatriating many objects still appearing in
illegal overseas art-markets or in international Auction-Houses. Reports
drawn up by experts appointed by the Council of Europe after visiting
some of the occupied monuments have officially confirmed the destruction
sustained by the monuments as such. In their writings they underlined
the magnitude of the destruction and sounded the alarm for the need to
restore and preserve the monuments, something which has never come about.
With the partial lifting of movement restrictions across
the occupation line (Easter 2003) Kykkos Bishop Nikephoros has actively
expressed his concern about the fate of religious cultural heritage in
the occupied areas. The Museum of the Holy Monastery of Kykkos has
included in its research programmes the first systematic and scientific
accumulation of information, including an inventory, a photographic
recording and the architectural depiction of occupied Christian
churches. A team of experts has been set up to undertake this task.
Today, as the photographic recording of Christian monuments
has been completed, the Museum of the Holy Monastery of Kykkos is
holding this exhibition in order to present both to the wider public and
to the scientific community, the magnitude of the destruction inflicted
and continuing to be inflicted on the cultural heritage of the country.
The findings on the basis of data collected during a field
investigation are shockingly tragic. Monuments of world-wide cultural
significance have been violently stripped of their sacred depictions,
their screens and icons. A ring of antique smugglers has deliberately
sawn off byzantine mosaics and wall-paintings and channeled them to
foreign art-markets. The looting was carried out in an unprecedented
scale. Apart from the mobile equipment of churches, church bells were
also stolen, doors, window shutters, roofs, church floors, even the
electrical installations of churches were also dismantled. Tens of
belfries were demolished so that Christian churches would not be
conspicuous in the villages, while the occupation regime did not even
hesitate to demolish mediaeval churches decorated with byzantine
frescoes (e.g. the Avgasida Monastery). Following the eviction of the
Greek population from their ancestral homes, the colonization by
settlers from the depths of Anatolia or the Black Sea and the illegal
change of the ancient place names of Cyprus for Turkish ones, there is
an ongoing campaign to wipe out completely the only remaining visible
sign of Christian presence in the northern part of the island, the churches.
The exhibition presents the actual situation of Christian churches in
occupied Cyprus, which are collapsing day by day, while dozens of others
are being used by the Turkish army of occupation as military camps and
storage facilities. Those of the churches that have not been converted
to Ottoman mosques are today being used as football clubs, association
premises, theatres, hotels, exhibition venues for works of art, art
studios, storerooms, shops, morgues, barns, chicken coops, stables and
ox-stalles. Most of the cemeteries have been flattened. Never before in
the rich historic past of Cyprus have the intolerance and brutality of
its intruders reached such a degree of organized and deliberate destruction.
Cyprus being today part of the great family of the European
Union is obliged to report and demonstrate the continuing pillage and
destruction of the country’s cultural heritage, which is not only part
of the common European patrimony but of the world at large. Religious
freedom, the upholding of principles of justice, the respect and
protection of remnants of the historical past constitute fundamental
tenets of the European Union, which both communities of the island, the
Greek Cypriots and the Turkish Cypriots, demand that the Turkish
occupation forces should observe.
The need for an intervention to protect and restore the
monuments is today more pressing than ever before. In this framework,
the Museum of the Holy Monastery of Kykkos is planning a dual
utilization of the accumulated material, both through the study of early
Christian and mediaeval monuments of occupied Cyprus and public
awareness through exhibitions at home and abroad, as well as through
special publications.
Dr. Charalampos G. CHOTZAKOGLOU
http://www.kykkos-museum.cy.net/prosklisi/english/03%20the_exhibition.htm
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