Museum of Christian art created in Aradippou

A museum of Christian art hosting some 300 works of art from all over the world has been established at Aradippou municipality following an agreement with the owner of the collection, retired Cypriot diplomat Charalambos Christoforou, who among other served as  Cyprus’ ambassador in Moscow.

Covering not just the Orthodox faith, the museum aspires to serve as an attraction for local and foreign visitors, Mayor Evangelos Evangelides told the Cyprus News Agency. Contacts are also underway with the education ministry for school visits while the works will also be promoted abroad, he added.

The exhibition is divided into five units – Greece-Cyprus, Europe, Russia, South America, and engravings. There are paintings depicting religions other than Christianity, as well as original works by Salvador Dali and Raphael and an original engraving by Rembrandt, he added.

It is housed in a renovated old house, located in Aradippou’s last remaining ‘old neighbourhood’, with the official inauguration scheduled for October.

Efforts are underway by the municipality to convert the neighbourhood into a ‘Laiki Yitonia’ for various arts.

Christoforou said that the exhibition has been the subject of a series of lectures in towns of Europe, including Brussels and Athens, but it was the mayor who first suggested the creation of a museum.

Among the works of art is a painting by a famous Russian artist and friend of Cyprus Evgeni Klemenov ‘The Songs of Mikis Theodorakis’ depicting the legendary composer directing his orchestra.

Christoforou recalled meeting Klemenov at Cyprus’ embassy in Moscow in 1990 and managing to persuade the artist to part with the painting.

He said he had explained to the artists how much he admired Theodorakis and his music, “The painting depicts a black clad mother, a woman in Cyprus, in traditional attire, carrying water in a jug as she walks through flames encircling a tree, a cross symbolising the Christian faith, young people dancing Zorbas, Maria Farantouri singing, a church belltower and a cluster of lit candles at the base of the cross,” he explained.