Ancient CyprusAncient Cyprus

Collector · Museum buyer · Patron

Dominique de Menil

fl. 1983–2012 · United States

Houston benefactor who bought the Lysi frescoes from the dealer Aydin Dikmen in 1983-84 with the consent of the Church of Cyprus, housed them in a chapel and returned them in 2012.

Biography

Dominique de Menil bought the Lysi frescoes from Aydın Dikmen in 1983-84 with the consent of the Church of Cyprus, and the frescoes were returned in 2012. In 1983 Yanni Petsopoulos approached Bertrand Davezac of the Menil with photographs of fresco fragments, and de Menil, Petsopoulos and Dikmen met in Munich. Dikmen said a contractor in southern Anatolia had found the pieces under rubble and showed a Turkish export permit, which the Menil side judged forged1,5.

De Menil hired Herbert Brownell, who wrote to nine former Byzantine territories. Turkey, Lebanon and Cyprus replied, and only Cyprus documented the church of St Themanianos at Lysi1. Cyprus claimed the murals on 6 September 1983, and in late October de Menil telephoned Vassos Karageorghis5. Derek Fincham says she then paid Dikmen about $520,000, "knowing perhaps that he would continue looting", after the Department of Antiquities and the Church of Cyprus had given their assent1. Hofstadter reports that Gary Vikan testified at trial that Petsopoulos had offered him the frescoes at Dumbarton Oaks for $600,0006.

Morris (1985) illustrates a Chalcolithic picrolite figurine in the de Menil Collection with no recorded provenance3.

The murals went from Munich to London in January 1984. A 1987 agreement gave the Menil custody for an initial fifteen years. Restoration of 38 fragments, under the conservator Laurence J. Morrocco, was followed by a $3 million Byzantine Chapel Museum in Houston, where the frescoes were shown for fifteen years1. A volume on Cyprus and the Balance of Empires says the chapel was deconsecrated in March 2012 and the frescoes returned2.

Life and work

  1. June 1983
    Rumour of a Byzantine masterpiece on the market reached the Menil's acting registrar; Davezac (Menil director/author of the introduction) called on Yanni Petsopoulos in London, was given two poor photographs, and showed them to Dominique de Menil in Paris. De Menil, Walter Hopps (then director of the Menil Collection), her assistant Elsian Cozens, Petsopoulos and Davezac met in Munich the next days (early June)

    Paris; London; MunichCarr & Morrocco 1991

  2. June 1983
    In the Munich meeting only Petsopoulos was known to Dikmen by name; the Menil party did not reveal their identity. Dikmen told them a contractor had found the church near Bim-bir-Kilisse in southern Anatolia while bulldozing, and offered a pen drawing, plans and an export permit. Menil party doubted the story; late June 1983 the Foundation engaged Brownell. Dumbarton Oaks (5 July) and the Courtauld (Petsopoulos) searches pointed to Cyprus

    MunichCarr & Morrocco 1991

  3. 1983
    Gary Vikan testified in Cyprus v. Goldberg that before approaching the Menil, Petsopoulos offered the frescoes to him at Dumbarton Oaks at a price of $600,000, with Dikmen's cover story; Petsopoulos later denied offering them, saying he only asked Vikan's advice. Stated by Hofstadter as trial testimony

    WashingtonHofstadter 1994

  4. 6 September 1983
    After Brownell's letters to nine countries, Cyprus (as well as Turkey and Lebanon) claimed the murals on 6 September 1983, identifying them as removed from St Themonianos (Euphemianos) near Lysi between 1974 and 1983

    Carr & Morrocco 1991

  5. October–December 1983
    Advised by Constantine Leventis, de Menil telephoned Vassos Karageorghis in late October 1983; invited to Nicosia. 1 Nov: Foundation resolved to redeem the murals through Petsopoulos on behalf of the Church of Cyprus; 11 Nov: agreed they would be restored under Menil auspices and lent to the Menil; 22 Nov: terms drafted by Hopps with Brownell and Karageorghis for Minister Christos Mavrellis to put to the Council of Ministers; 29 Dec: Karageorghis told the Foundation the Council of Ministers and the Archbishop approved. In December Petsopoulos placed the funds 'in the amount demanded by Dikman' in a Swiss escrow account, releasable only after the fragments were examined in London

    Nicosia; HoustonCarr & Morrocco 1991

  6. 1983
    Offered a group of 13th-century Byzantine fresco fragments by Aydin Dikmen through the dealer Yiannis Petsopoulos; the true origin was not given. Menil director Bertrand Davezac was approached first; a meeting followed in a Munich apartment where Dikmen showed forged-looking papers (a free-hand drawing and a forged Turkish export permit) and said a contractor in Anatolia had found the murals

    MunichFincham 2015, p. 6

  7. 1983
    Agreed to pay Dikmen a small sum to secure the right to acquire the frescoes later; hired Herbert Brownell to negotiate and to notify nine countries of the Byzantine empire

    Fincham 2015, pp. 6-7

  8. 1983–1984
    After Cyprus alone documented the church, de Menil decided to pay Dikmen, with the consent of the Church of Cyprus and the Department of Antiquities; price 'near $520,000'. Fincham quotes Cyprus's ambassador Andreas Jacovides on the dilemma of risking the frescoes going underground

    Fincham 2015, p. 7

  9. January 1984
    Murals moved from Munich to London, where conservator Laurence Morrocco examined the 38 fragments in 1984

    LondonFincham 2015, pp. 7-8

  10. July 1984 – April 1988
    Conservation studio set up July 1984 in London (Morrocco, with Peter Rice of Ove Arup and Carol Mancusi-Ungaro, Menil chief conservator); restoration completed 1988; murals reached Houston April 1988. Fragments first inspected at Artworld Shipping's warehouse, facings removed December 1983

    London; HoustonCarr & Morrocco 1991

  11. 5 December 1985
    Agreement passed by Archbishop Chrysostomos and Hopps for the Menil Foundation; incorporated with earlier agreements in a final protocol of 24 March 1987: custody for fifteen years from 1 January 1986, consecrated shelter could be built from 1 January 1989

    Carr & Morrocco 1991

  12. 1987
    Agreement with the Autocephalous Church of Cyprus for an initial custodianship of fifteen years, the Menil to conserve and display the murals

    HoustonFincham 2015, p. 7

  13. May 1989
    Deposed in Houston in Cyprus v. Goldberg (Hopps deposed too). Per Hofstadter, she testified that on the Munich visit in 1983 she also acquired two other objects from Dikmen, one a jewel-studded Sumerian idol; Hopps testified Karageorghis asked whose hands the frescoes were in and he refused to say, citing Petsopoulos's warning; Hopps resigned from the Menil Collection within hours of testifying (Hofstadter's account)

    HoustonHofstadter 1994

  14. 1989
    NamedSubpoenaed and deposed as a witness (not a party) by Peg Goldberg's lawyer Joe Emerson in Autocephalous Church of Cyprus v. Goldberg; Hofstadter reports her testimony that the Menil bought Cypriot antiquities from Dikmen and that Cyprus knew of it

    Hofstadter 1994

  15. March 2012
    Menil chapel deconsecrated and the frescoes returned to Cyprus

    HoustonStewart et al. 2014

Connections

17 people
Aydın DikmenYanni PetsopoulosNicolas KoutoulakisWalter HoppsLaurence J. MoroccoBertrand DavezacHerbert BrownellPeg GoldbergPavlos FlourentzosVassos KarageorghisConstantine LeventisGary VikanChristos MavrellisJohn de MenilElsian CozensFrancoise de MenilPeter RiceDominique de Menil
Sales & giftsFieldworkDisputesScholarshipColleagues

Sales, gifts & bequests

Fieldwork & employment

Disputes & the law

Scholarship

Colleagues & contacts

Objects

  • Thirteenth-century fresco fragments (38 pieces) from the dome and apse of the church of St Themanianos, Lysi: Christ Pantokrator with twelve angels, the Virgin, St John the Baptist

    From Lysi (church of St Themanianos)Menil Collection, Houston (custodian only)1983–1984Fincham 2015, pp. 1Carr & Morrocco 1991

  • Picrolite figurine, Chalcolithic, no provenance, h. 8.4 cm

    Houston, de Menil CollectionMorris 1985, Fig. 132

  • Two further objects bought from Dikmen on the 1983 Munich visit, one a jewel-studded Sumerian idol (non-Cypriot; per Hofstadter, from de Menil's deposition)

    1983Hofstadter 1994

On Ancient Cyprus

1 page

Sources

  1. 1.Derek Fincham (2015). “The Rescue, Stewardship, and Return of the Lysi Frescoes by the Menil Foundation”. International Journal of Cultural Property. Online
  2. 2.C. A. Stewart (ed.), T. W. Davis (ed.), A. Weyl Carr (ed.) (2014). Cyprus and the Balance of Empires: Art and Archaeology from Justinian I to the Coeur de Lion. CAARI / ASOR.
  3. 3.Desmond Morris (1985). The Art of Ancient Cyprus, with a check-list of the author's collection. Oxford, Phaidon Press in association with Jonathan Cape.
  4. 4.Christine Winkelmann (2020). The Neolithic and Chalcolithic Figurines of Cyprus. Münster, Zaphon.
  5. 5.Annemarie Weyl Carr, Laurence J. Morrocco (1991). A Byzantine Masterpiece Recovered: The Thirteenth-Century Murals of Lysi, Cyprus. Austin, University of Texas Press, with the Menil Foundation.
  6. 6.Dan Hofstadter (1994). Goldberg's Angel: An Adventure in the Antiquities Trade.