New website seeks to ease return of artworks lost in 74

A website (www.cyprusart.eu/en) has been created for the collection of information about all artworks lost in Cyprus in 1974 with the hope of identifying their rightful owners and returning works to them.

The website operates in three languages: Greek, Turkish and English.

It was created after the Bi-communal Technical Committee on Culture was mandated in February to return 219 paintings and pieces of audio-visual material in the north to their owners.

Similarly, the website asks people to complete a five-part questionnaire giving information about each artwork and its owner.

“Art is transcendent, overcoming political, social, economic and physical barriers. Even the devastating consequences of violent conflicts,” the website says.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.