A PAINTING loaned to the Foreign Ministry by well-known TV journalist Demetris Andreou has been stolen from the Ministry.
Andreou had lent the painting, one of a three-part series by painter Andreas Charalambous inspired by the 1974 Cyprus tragedy, and two others to the Foreign Ministry about 10 years ago.
Andreou told the Cyprus Mail yesterday: “Back when my friend Alecos Michaelides was Foreign Minister, I visited his office one day and noticed the walls were bare and the office was very sterile, so I agreed to lend the Ministry three paintings from my collection.”
Andreou was asked to come pick up his paintings from the Ministry about three months ago. When he recently stopped by to collect his artwork, he noticed that one of the paintings being returned did not belong to him. “The three paintings I lent them all had labels on the back with my name,” Andreou explained, “and someone must have taken the label off the painting they wanted and slapped it on another one.”
The Ministry insisted the third painting was his, but Andreou would not accept it, and asked that a formal investigation be opened in order to find out what happened to his lost work of art.
Andreou is afraid his painting will never be found. If nothing substantial is discovered in the Ministry’s internal investigation, Andreou said he would turn the matters over to the police. Asked if he would ever lend another piece of artwork to a Ministry office, Andreou let out a hearty laugh and said, “I don’t think so. This is it for me.”
The report of the missing painting comes at the same time as the ministry found that five ancient jars that adorned the conference hall next to the Foreign Ministry Office had gone missing as well. Officials have little idea when the artifacts were stolen. So far, they can only estimate that they were removed some time between 1999 and December 2002. Apparently, nobody noticed them missing until after the last presidential election. Foreign Minister George Iacovou said that the internal investigation he commissioned has found nothing, so now he’s been forced to call in the police. Iacovou told reporters yesterday, “We have no conclusion at the moment. I don’t have any specific suspicions, either. Right now it’s out of my hands and a matter for the police.”
