Help us return looted icons back to Cyprus from Japan!
Stratos Safioleas
Hello to everyone!
Please take a few minutes and visit the site
http://www.yale.edu/eox/Diaspora/kypros/kanza.html
It includes the petition and info about the holy icons smuggled out of
Cyprus and sold to a Japanese College of Arts.
We have received close to a thousand signatures from all over the world
asking the College to return them to the people of Cyprus.
No matter what your religion conviction is, I am sure that you can relate
to the issue.
In the next part of the message you can find more information.
Best regards
Stratos
DC
Kanazawa College of Arts Refuses to Return Looted Church Treasure
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ACTION ALERT:
Join the Petition to Have Kanazawa College Return the Stolen Holy
Icons back to the Church and the people of Cyprus.
Please take a few moments to read the article from Japan's Asahi
Shimbum newspaper regarding the religious icons stolen from Cyprus
which are now being displayed at the Kanazawa College of Arts in
Japan. The "Royal Doors", completed by Monk Philaretos in 1775,
were looted from a church in Famagusta nearly 200 years later
following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974.
Then submit your name and address to a worldwide petition addressed
to the Kanazawa College of Arts and to the Japanese government, to
return the holy icons to the Church and the people of Cyprus.
Asahi Shimbun Newspaper Article
Sample Letter.
Submit your name and address in the end.
More information about the continuous destruction of the Cultural
Heritage of Cyprus
Not knowing is bad. Not wanting to know is worse. Not caring is
unforgivable.
(Nigerian Proverb)
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Kanazawa College of Arts Clings to Looted Church Treasure
Asahi Shimbun 19/5/96
The Cypriot government is demanding the return of a looted icon of
a Greek Orthodox Church, which had been missing since the Turkish
seizure of northern Cyprus in 1974, but resurfa ced last year at
the Kanazawa College of Arts, Ishikawa Prefecture. The publicly
funded college is resisting giving back the religious icon,
however, since it was purchased in good faith with Kanazawa
taxpayers' money. The college says it paid a Dutch art dealer
[several] millions for the icon in January 1995. At the time, the
dealer supplied a brochure with the 176 cm x 84 cm in which it is
described as the 'Royal Doors by the hand of the Monk Philaretos,'
completed in 1775. "The Royal Doors" are of pine wood adorned with
richly illuminated religious panels, and according to the brochure,
'form the center of the Iconostasis,' the icon-decorated screen
that separates the sanctuary from the rest of Greek Orthodox church
interiors.
The icon was later displayed in the Kanazawa College of Arts.
Last December it was recognized by another Dutch art dealer who was
visiting the college on business. The dealer pointed out that it
was looted property that had disappeared during the civil war in
Cyprus between its Greek and Turkish communities. A spokesman said
Kanazawa College of Arts "never knew that it had been looted." The
icon was chosen by one of its professors who is considered an
expert on European art history, the college spokesman said, and the
college had never doubted the authenticity, origin, or ownership of
the icon it acquired, "since the name of the artist the year and
place in which he created the icon, were all clear." The Dutch
dealer subsequently informed the consul-general of the Republic of
Cyprus to the Netherlands who came to Japan and visited Kanazawa
College of Arts to observe the icon in late April. The diplomat,
who is also an expert in religious art, determined that the icon
was identical to the one looted from a church in Famagusta in
easter n Cyprus, and insisted that it be repatriated.
Proclaiming that they were acting to protect the Turkish Cypriot
minority against the Greek Cypriot majority, Turkish troops swept
through Northern Cyprus in 1974, and occupied 36% of the island
territory. Famagusta has since been just inside Turkish-controlled
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.'
The professor responsible for the college's purchase of the icon
said that he was completely unaware that there had been any war in
Cyprus, or of the Island's division between the Greek-dominated
Republic of Cyprus in the south, and the Turkish held sector in the
north, for more than two decades.
Kanazawa College of Art insists that it cannot now unconditionally
return to Cyprus the icon, despite now having learned that it was
looted, because the college is administered by the city of Kanazawa
and the icon was purchased with the money of local taxpayers. The
college claims that if an object is bought without knowledge of it
being stolen property, Japanese law recognizes the right of
possession by the purchaser, as long as the purchase is made
without malicious intent. The spokesman says that the college will
be guided by the law in its treatment of the icon. Kanazawa College
of Art to currently trying to investigate how the icon came into
the possession of the Dutch art dealer in The Hague who later sold
it to the college. The college admits that its attempts to track
the route of the icon since 1974 have so far met with little
success. The Cypriot diplomat says that he will visit the college
again next month to press for the icon's return.
The government of the Republic of Cyprus and church organizations
on the island are currently requesting the return of all church art
works after the 1974 Turkish occupation. In 1989, a Cypriot mosaic
art work, looted alter 1974, was found in Indiana in the United
States. The Cypriot claimants successfully sued in court for the
mosaic's return to its homeland.
_________________________________________________________________
Letter to the Kanazawa College of Arts and to the Japanese Government
Dear Friends:
We were extremely surprised to learn that the Kanazawa College of
Arts has recently acquired a stolen religious icon from the Turkish
occupied territory of Cyprus.
Although we understand that the Kanazawa Colllege of Arts was
mislead about the true origins of the religious icons, we do not
understand why they have not been returned to their rightful owner.
Since the 1974 Turkish invasion, the Cypriot people have witnessed
the ongoing destruction of their cultural heritage. We know that
the Japanese people have a great sense of honor, a respect for
tradition, and would never knowingly become accomplices in the
theft of an icon of great religious value to the people of Cyprus.
We respectfully ask that you return the religious icons to their
legitimate owner, the Church of Cyprus.
Respectfully
_________________________________________________________________
Use the following to add your name and address to the petition:
Name (First, Last):
____________________________________________________________
Title - Organization (optional):
____________________________________________________________
Street address:
____________________________________________________________
City, State, ZIP:
____________________________________________________________
Country:
____________________________________________________________
Email:
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For more info, contact:
Kanazawa City Hall
International section
Tel. 81762-202111
Fax 81762-202069
Hirosaka 1-1-1
Kanazawa-shi Ishikawa-ken
JAPAN
Kanazawa College of Art
tel. 81762-62-3531
fax. 81762-62-6594
5-11-1 Kodatsuno, Kanazawa-shi
920 Ishikawa-ken
JAPAN
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*new*new*new*new*new*new*new*new*new*new*new*new*new*new*new*new*new*new*new*
NOW names and pictures of the murderers WANTED by the police
SIGN the worldwide petition to force the TURKISH GOVERNMENT to turn them in!
US Site: http://gwis2.circ.gwu.edu/~stratos/kypros/isaak.html
Greek Site http://www.duth.gr/kypros/isaak.html
http://egnatia.ee.auth.gr/~anstal/kypros/isaak.html
sp...@erols.com
This is a very important petition to sign. I signed it a long time ago.
This is one country blatantly stealing the precious cultural and
religious heritage of another. I hope everybody here will sign this
petition.
One thing, Stratos, that I thought of. There is a Japanese Orthodox
Church which is a part of the official (i.e. ex-communist) RUssian
Orthodox Church in Russia. That deal was made (by Rt.Rev. Meyendorff)for
the Japanese Orthodox Church to come under that overlordship about 25
years ago, so it may have changed since then. Still, what I was thinking
is that you get hold of those guys from the Japanese Orthodox Church and
you elicit their support for getting the icons back. Maybe somebody has
the address of this japanese Orthodox Church to help with this.
In Christ,
Galina