Icon stolen from Karavas church repatriated

An icon of Saint John the Baptist that was stolen from the Ayia Irini church in the area of Karavas in the north has been repatriated after it was found in Germany, the Cyprus church announced on Tuesday.

The icon was found being auctioned by the Hargesheimer Kunstauktionen auction house in Düsseldorf in November 2022 but the Church of Cyprus successfully reclaimed it last month.

In its announcement, the church of Cyprus thanked researcher Kalliopi Harmanta for her help in identifying the icon of John the Baptist.

It added that the specific icon, measuring 92 x 36cm, was painted in the Ayios Eraklidios monastery workshop and dedicated to the church in 1807. Lavrentios Protosyngelos, the donor of most of the icons in the church of Ayia Irini in Karavas, donated the icon to the church.

However, all the icons of the church were stolen after the Turkish invasion, to be sold on the black market.

Another icon from the same church depicting five saints (George, Eutyches, Eleftherios, Procopius and Marina) from 1766 was repatriated in 2015.