Two 14th-century Asinou icons stolen after the 1974 invasion return to Cyprus from Britain

Two 14th-century icons of the Evangelists Matthew and Mark, which belong to the Panagia church at Asinou in the Troodos mountains, are back in Cyprus. The Metropolis of Morphou announced their return on Friday 9 October: the panels had been stolen after the Turkish invasion of 1974 from the palace of the Metropolis of Kyrenia, and were later traced to the United Kingdom.

From Asinou to Kyrenia

The church at Asinou, dedicated to the Panagia Forviotissa, dates from the 12th century; the Metropolis describes the two icons as Palaeologan work of the 14th century. Before 1974 they were moved from Asinou to the palace of the Metropolis in the town of Kyrenia, on the north coast. The invasion put Kyrenia inside the area occupied by Turkey, and the icons were stolen from the palace after it.

Another Asinou icon is recorded at the same address. In a 1981 study of the raised gilded haloes on Cypriot icons, the art historian M. S. Frinta described a variant of the Virgin Kykkotissa from Asinou as "then in the Bishop's palace at Kyrenia" [1].

How they came back

The Metropolis said the icons had been located in Britain, their movements documented and the Church of Cyprus was recognised as their owner. The person holding them asked for nothing in return, so the Metropolis took them back without payment. No arrest or charge has been announced.

The Metropolis thanked George Georgiou, director of the Department of Antiquities, together with the Cyprus Police chief Themistos Arnaoutis, Interpol and the theologian and iconographer George Petrou. The Byzantinist Dr Christodoulos Hatzichristodoulou, an adviser to the Metropolis, also took part in the effort. The return was announced with the blessing of Archbishop George of Cyprus and Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou.

The rest of the Asinou set

Matthew and Mark belong to a larger series from the church. Peter and Paul, two apostle icons of the same group, came back from New York in 2007, and an icon of Christ survives. Four more panels of the series, the Virgin, St John the Baptist and the two remaining Evangelists, John and Luke, are still missing and the search for them continues.

Church art and the courts

Icons of this kind are a different category from archaeological antiquities. They stood in churches that were in use until 1974 and belonged to a living institution that kept inventories and photographs, and that record is what lets a stolen panel be matched to its church (see church art and antiquities). Some claims have taken decades. Four 16th-century apostle icons from the church of Christ Antiphonitis, found in the Netherlands in 1995, were lost by the Church in the Dutch courts in 1999 and 2002, and came home in September 2013 after a Dutch law of 2007 on cultural property from occupied territory (the Dutch icons).