CYprus remembers theft by Turks of Christian relics from ocupied churches in Christmas Stamps.

Whilst Prime Minister Brown cosies up to the Turkish Government, and the Turks get upset that the US Senate passes unpleasant bills remembering the slaughter of the Armenians. The despoilation of Christian relics goes on a pace in Northern Cyprus.

This Year the Cyprus post office issues memorial stamps ina Commemorative issue which willl go on sale on November 14th. These depict Murals From The Chapel Of St. Themonianus In The Turkish occupied village of Lysi. This chapel is a single aisled vaulted building with a dome. In all probability it was a private chapel as an inscription refers to the dedication of the chapel by the holy monk Lavrentios to the local St. Themonianus.

The little chapel was plundered completely by the Turks, probably between 1974 and 1983, under the strict surveillance of the occupying Turkish army and with the criminal intention of removing without exception everything including the wall paintings.

In 1983, a representative of the well known Menil Foundation Inc. of Texas found the stolen wall paintings in the flat of a Turkish art dealer in Munich. He is thought to be the same Turkish dealer who in 1988 sold the mosaics which had been removed from the church of Panagia Kanakaria in the occupied part of Cyprus, (see pic) and who came up with a variety of lies and justifications as to the origins of the stolen wall paintings. The Republic of Cyprus proved by irrefutable evidence that the stolen murals came from the chapel of St. Themonianus in occupied Lysi and successfully claimed their return to the island.

(See full horrifying history of Turkish desecration and commercial theft and sale of of holy relics here )

As the Orthodox Church of Cyprus was finally recognized as the legal owner of the stolen murals an agreement was reached whereby the murals were to be held on loan by the Menil Foundation Inc. of Houston, Texas, for a period of 15 years from the 1st January 1986 while also undertaking their restoration and safe keeping in an appropriate environment until their return to Cyprus. The restoration work was undertaken over a period exceeding 3 years in the specialist art atelier of Laurence Morocco in London. The restored murals were then transported to Houston and installed in a chapel built specifically for this purpose and which has the exact dimensions as the plundered chapel of St. Themonianus at Lysi.

The murals of St. Themonianus which depict Christ Pantocrator and the Panagia Orans attended by Archangels are considered among the most significant Cypriot religious works of art of the 13th-14th centuries.

Two of the stamps depict details from the mural in the apse of the chapel, the one portraying part of the Panagia Theotokos Orans and the other the Archangel Gabriel as shown now in Houston, Texas. The third stamp depicts Christ Pantocrator, the Supplication, the Preparation of Ihe Throne and the angels as installed in the dome of the chapel of SI. Themonianus in Houston, Texas.

The Menil Collection, which is operated by the Menil Foundation, Inc., opened to the public in June 1987 as the primary repository of John and Dominique de Menil’s private collection. One of the most significant of the twentieth century, the collection consists of nearly 15,000 works dating from the Paleolithic era to the present day. John Menil was CEO of the Schlumberger Coproration founded by his wife Demique's father and uncle.

More details and you can order sets (which please do - Cyprus £1.42 - e mail philatelic@dps.mcw.gov.cy) from www.mcw.gov.cy - full reproductions will be posted when available, the one above is inadequate but all that is available.