[Handout/Culture Ministry]
Greece has repatriated to Cyprus a group of nearly 50 antiquities covering about 3,500 years of the island’s history that were originally part of a private collection, the Culture Ministry said Tuesday.
The 48 works in terracotta and stone were handed over during a visit to Nicosia by Culture Minister Lina Mendoni, who said it was only fair for a country bent on reclaiming its own cultural heritage from abroad to return what it could to other countries.
“Our joy is equally great when Greece returns antiquities to the country where they belong,” she said. “That is both proper and ethical … Cyprus, like Greece, has been plundered by various invaders.”
The ministry said the Cypriot antiquities, dating from about 2000 BC to 1500 AD, were “exquisite samples of Cypriot civilisation” that had been part of a collection formed by a Greek diplomat, Christos Zaharakis.
It said that after he died his heirs donated the entire collection to the Greek state, expressing the desire for the works to be returned “where they belonged” once their provenance was established.
Greece has for years aggressively pursued the return, from museums and collections worldwide, of hundreds of Greek antiquities that were illegally excavated and exported.
