The deliberate destruction of cultural heritage is a means of eradicating the identity of a people, Deputy Minister of Culture Vasiliki Kassianidou has said.

Speaking at an event where the results of Digitising the Museums of Cyprus (CADiP) were presented on Thursday, Kassianidou stressed the importance of digitisation in the context of cultural heritage.

She said that new technology “is one of the key pillars in efforts to document, protect and recover stolen cultural property, both through the creation of specialised applications to combat illicit trade and through the emphasis placed on high-quality documentation of cultural goods”.

The deputy minister also highlighted the significance of preserving cultural goods.

“The conflicts in the Middle East region in recent years, but also the experiences of Cyprus itself after the Turkish invasion of 1974, have highlighted the scourge of the deliberate destruction of cultural heritage as a means of eradicating the identity of a people.”

In the past 36 months, officials have digitised 96,000 ancient objects exhibited in showcases and kept in the warehouses of state museums.

The project started in May 2021 and aimed at digitising all objects exhibited in museum exhibitions under the responsibility of the department of antiquities.

Since 2009, more than 100,000 movable finds, 3,581 archaeological surveys and 1,641 ancient monuments have been digitised.