A museum has opened in Cyprus showcasing priceless early Christian artworks, many of which were recovered after being stolen from churches in the Turkish-occupied north of the island.
The Byzantine Museum of the Archbishop Makarios III Foundation opened on March 18 in the capital Nicosia after five years of extensive renovations. It features mosaics, icons and wall frescoes representing some of early Christianity’s finest and rarest works.
Many of the exhibits were looted by smugglers after a Turkish invasion in 1974 triggered by a brief Greek-inspired coup and trafficked on the black market.
Step into Cyprus’ Byzantine past! ✨
The renovated Byzantine Museum in Lefkosia opens its doors today! Discover a breathtaking collection of sacred art, spanning from the 4th to the 18th century. 🖼️ 📍 Open Tuesday – Saturday | 09:30 – 17:00 #Nicosia pic.twitter.com/xSppE3lrEW— VisitCyprus (@visitcyprus) March 18, 2025
Over the years, Cypriot authorities have doggedly tracked down and reclaimed numerous stolen works, putting them in museums they hope can be temporary, if peace talks one day allow the island to be united again.
“The looting, the destruction was on a great scale,” the museum’s director, Dr Ioannis Eliades told Reuters. “We have calculated that more than 20,000 icons have been stolen and disappeared from the churches.”
“We are still searching for them.”
Important Christian artworks displayed in Cyprus
The museum’s repatriated pieces are accompanied by detailed information about their journey from being stolen to being brought back to Cyprus.
Special analogs provide visitors with a deeper understanding of the cultural trauma left behind by the Turkish invasion of 1974. These exhibits help explain how Cyprus lost these important cultural treasures and the immense effort it took to recover them.
Dr. Eliades also spoke about the suitcase of the infamous antiquities thief Dikmen, who was responsible for making fake mosaics. His suitcase is part of the exhibit, showcasing the disturbing methods used by criminals to exploit Cyprus’ treasures. However, the main purpose of this display is not just to show the beauty of the mosaics but to educate visitors on how the repatriated works found their way back home after being stolen and sold illegally.
The museum includes rare mosaics from the early 6th century AD, fitted into a reproduction of an apse as was the original, from the Church of Panagia Kanakaria at Lythrangomi in north Cyprus.
Even before the war, the mosaic was well documented by archaeologists as a rare work of art that had survived iconoclasm — where use of religious images was banned by Byzantine emperors throughout the region.
But the depiction of Christ, the Virgin Mary, archangels and apostles was hacked off the walls in the late 1970s, chopped into pieces and sold onto the black market. Most of the pieces were later discovered in private collections, recovered by Cyprus after litigation.
These restorations were made possible by financial support from the Swiss government as part of a collaborative project involving the Cyprus Department of Antiquities, the Byzantine and Christian Museum of Athens, and several other institutions.
Related: Cyprus Displays Artifacts Looted After the Turkish Invasion