The Department of Antiquities, Ministry of Transport, Communications and Works and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, announce that yesterday, January 25, 2023, two ancient Cypriot coins and a part of a fresco were delivered to the Embassy of the Republic of Cyprus in Washington DC. The delivery was made on behalf of the US authorities by Mr. Ricardo Mayoral, Deputy Assistant Director for International Operations, Homeland Security Investigations. In December 2016, Homeland Security Investigations, Philadelphia, began an investigation after receiving information from relevant authorities in the Republic of Cyprus regarding the sale of ancient Cypriot coins by a U.S.-based auction house. The coin in question is a rare gold coin of the ancient Cypriot kingdom of Kition (dated circa 362-312 BC), depicting the mythical hero Hercules with a club and bow on the obverse and a lion attacking a deer on the reverse. The second coin is silver and comes from the ancient Cypriot kingdom of Amathus (dated circa 385 BC). It depicts a lion with a flying eagle on the obverse and a lion with an open mouth on the reverse.
The third antiquity delivered is a fragment of a 17th-18th century AD fresco from an ecclesiastical monument in Cyprus. Specifically, in May 2021, Austin Homeland Security Investigations began investigating the case after receiving information that a Texas resident possessed a portion of a fresco from Cyprus. Investigations revealed that it was indeed a portion of a mural that had been illegally exported from Cyprus. As a result, the antiquity was confiscated and procedures were initiated for its return to Cyprus. The exact monument from which the fragment originated is not yet known, since as a result of the ongoing Turkish occupation of more than a third of the island, the competent authorities of the Republic of Cyprus do not have access to all the ecclesiastical monuments in Cyprus to carry out the necessary investigations. It is well known that, as a result of the Turkish invasion and occupation, the cultural heritage of Cyprus has been irreparably damaged. All categories of cultural heritage in the country have been affected. A large number of ecclesiastical monuments have been confiscated and many have been completely destroyed. Church icons and other religious objects have been stolen, frescoes and mosaics have been dismantled, and archaeological sites, museums and collections have been confiscated, with a large number of antiquities illegally exported from Cyprus. In some cases, cultural objects from Cyprus have been identified in markets and auctions abroad. In the case of this particular fragment of a fresco, it is obvious from the outline it retains that it was detached from the monument to which it belonged, by the same method observed in cases of other frescoes, which were forcibly removed from ecclesiastical monuments in occupied Cyprus. A number of them have been located abroad and repatriated to Cyprus.
The competent authorities of the Republic of Cyprus express their sincere thanks to the authorities of the United States of America and in particular the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, for their excellent cooperation and their valuable efforts to combat the illicit trafficking of cultural property and to protect the cultural heritage of Cyprus.
The competent authorities of the Republic of Cyprus express their sincere thanks to the authorities of the United States of America and in particular the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, for their excellent cooperation and their valuable efforts to combat the illicit trafficking of cultural property and to protect the cultural heritage of Cyprus. To this end, the contribution of the relevant Cyprus-US Agreement concerning the Imposition of Import Restrictions on Pre-Classical and Classical Archaeological Objects and Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Period Ecclesiastical and Ritual Ethnological Materials is considered particularly positive.
(ΘΓ/EΠ/ΙΚ)
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