Greek Cypriot artworks held hostage following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus are set to be released as part of a series of confidence-building measures agreed to by Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci last week.
The well-known Greek works held in the Turkish occupied part of the island include paintings belonging to 36 different artists, including Yiorgos Paul Georgiou, Stelios Votsis, Christophoros Savva and other works that are either unsigned or have illegible signatures.
Turkish Cypriot cultural spokesman Kani Kanol said the 219 works to be returned are stored at the Ataturk Cultural Centre in Nicosia, however he also stated that he knew that Turkish Cypriot artworks stored at the cultural centre had not been maintained well and had been damaged so great care needed to be taken for the registration of the works.
The Turkish Cypriot side will also be given audio-visual material by Turkish Cypriot artists stored by CyBC, the state broadcaster. These audiovisual works dated back to decades before 1963, and the Turkish side hopes that it would shed light on the Turkish side of the island’s culture and tradition.
The process for the return of the works will be decided in a meeting held by the committee on 13 March as some of the artworks may belong to descendants of original owners or galleries. Turkish Cypriot artists had started cataloguing the works at the beginning of 2016.
Following the return of the artworks, new lists could be created to see which artworks are still lost and missing.
