The Menil Collection in Houston announced on Friday that next year it would return to the Greek Orthodox Church of Cyprus 13th-century Byzantine frescoes that have been one of the museum’s main attractions for more than a decade.
The frescoes will be returned by the Menil Foundation in Houston, Texas, USA, in accordance with the terms of the relevant loan agreement, between the Holy Archbishopric of Cyprus and the Menil Foundation, which expires on February 14, 2012.
The Church of Cyprus notes that the return of the frescoes has been a personal vision and goal of Archbishop of Cyprus Chrysostomos II, and was achieved after the concerted efforts of the Church of Cyprus and the competent authorities of the Republic of Cyprus.
”The Greek Orthodox Church of Cyprus would like to cordially thank the Menil Foundation for its commitment to return the frescoes and, especially, for its unique initiative in promoting those symbols of Christian faith and masterpieces of Byzantine art, as well as for their first rate preservation and maintenance”, it is added.
The philanthropist Dominique de Menil, who founded the museum with her husband, John, and died in 1997, bought the frescoes in 1984 on behalf of the church, after evidence emerged that they had been looted from a Greek Orthodox chapel outside the village of Lysi, in the Turkish-controlled Famagusta district of Cyprus.
One, from the inside of a dome, depicts Christ Pantocrator surrounded by angels; the other, from an apse, shows the Virgin Mary and the archangels Michael and Gabriel. The frescoes have been exhibited in a chapel built for them on the Menil campus in Houston, which opened to the public in 1997.
Returning the frescoes to Cyprus was “always part of the reality, because we were never the owners, just the custodians and stewards,” said Josef Helfenstein, director of the Menil Collection. “I’d love for them to stay,” he added, “but at the same time this is the logical continuation of the story.”
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