Menil Collection

No permanent Cypriot antiquities collection documented here. The Menil Foundation held the Lysi frescoes as custodian for the Church of Cyprus from 1988 until their return in 2012; Winkelmann and Morris record Chalcolithic Cypriot figurines in the D. and J. de Menil collection. (2012)

Carr & Morrocco 1991Winkelmann 2020

1. June 1983
   The acting registrar of the Menil Collection heard of an important Byzantine work coming onto the market; Yanni Petsopoulos in London showed him two photographs of Byzantine murals. Dominique de Menil, Walter Hopps, Petsopoulos and the Menil officials then met two Turkish men in Munich, one of them the alleged collector Aydin Dikmen, and saw the fragments in a flat.

   MunichYanni PetsopoulosDominique de MenilWalter HoppsAydın DikmenBertrand DavezacCarr & Morrocco 1991

2. October–November 1983
   Late in October 1983 Dominique de Menil consulted Vassos Karageorghis, Director of the Department of Antiquities, in Nicosia. On 1 November the Menil Foundation resolved to redeem the Lysi murals on behalf of the Church of Cyprus, and on 11 November it was agreed they would be restored under Foundation auspices and lent to the Foundation for display in Houston.

   NicosiaDominique de MenilVassos KarageorghisHerbert BrownellCarr & Morrocco 1991

3. 1984
   The murals were moved from Munich to London in January 1984, and in July a conservation studio was set up for their reassembly under Laurence Morrocco, with Carol Mancusi-Ungaro as the Menil's chief conservator. The author of the 1991 volume states the Foundation recovered them in 1984 on behalf of the Archbishopric.

   LondonLaurence J. MoroccoCarol Mancusi-UngaroCarr & Morrocco 1991

4. 24 March 1987
   A final protocol between the Church of Cyprus and the Menil Foundation incorporated the earlier agreements (including one of 5 December 1985): custody entrusted to the Foundation for fifteen years from 1 January 1986, with a consecrated shelter possible from 1 January 1989.

   HoustonWalter HoppsArchbishop ChrysostomosCarr & Morrocco 1991

5. 1988
   Restoration of the 26 dome and 12 apse pieces was completed and the murals reached the Menil Collection in Houston in April 1988; Annemarie Weyl Carr gave a preliminary report at the Byzantine Studies Conference in Houston in October 1988.

   HoustonAnnemarie Weyl CarrLaurence J. MoroccoCarr & Morrocco 1991

6. 1989
   In the Indianapolis case over the Kanakaria mosaics, Walter Hopps and Dominique de Menil were deposed; her testimony showed the Menil Foundation had also bought from Dikmen, and that the Cypriot government had known of it. This is Hofstadter's account.

   HoustonWalter HoppsDominique de MenilPeg GoldbergAydın DikmenHofstadter 1994

7. 2012
   The Menil Collection returned the Lysi frescoes to Cyprus; the chapel designed by Francoise de Menil was deconsecrated in March 2012, per Parpas's preface. Wikipedia dates the announcement of permanent return to February 2012.

   HoustonDominique de MenilStewart et al. 2014Menil Collection

• Lysi (St Themonianos) frescoes: 26 dome and 12 apse segments, 13th century, cut from the church in the north of Cyprus

  from Lysivia Aydın Dikmen1984Carr & Morrocco 1991

• Picrolite figurine, Chalcolithic, no provenance, h. 8.4 cm (de Menil Collection, Houston)

  Morris 1985

• Chalcolithic Cypriot figurine (Winkelmann C 368), D. and J. de Menil Collection

  Winkelmann 2020

• Inherited Cypriot Antiquities? What You Have and Your OptionsArticle
• Looting in Occupied Northern Cyprus after 1974Compendium