NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) – The abstract figures of naked women spinning to the beat of a five-piece band had shocked many when they first looked at the artwork on the walls of a popular restaurant nightclub in Cyprus nearly 60 years ago. .
The precious and very rare concrete relief of Christoforos Savva, Cyprus’s most avant-garde artist of the 1960s, had been hidden for decades in the underground recesses of the Perroquet nightclub in deserted Varosha – an inaccessible ghost town under Turkish military control. was standing. since a war of 1974 the island nation has split ethnically.
But with Varosha’s controversial partial opening last November, the artwork has come to light again following a report from local newspaper Politis. Now the man who says he ordered Savva’s art is asking the authorities for help to have it removed and taken to the country’s national gallery for all to see.
Former Perroquet owner Avgerinos Nikitas, 93, a Greek Cypriot, has appealed to a committee made up of both Greek and Turkish Cypriots tasked with protecting the cultural treasures of Cyprus on both sides of the rift around the 13 sections to help remove it.
“In return, I promise to donate these pieces to the National Collection as a small contribution to Christoforos Savva’s vast oeuvre,” Nikitas said in a letter obtained by The Associated Press, addressed to the committee and to the Ministry of Education of Cyprus.
But the whole venture could go off the rails if the Greek Cypriot family that owns the Esperia Tower hotel that hosted the Perroquet club insists that the artwork legally belongs to them. They say they will not allow their “private property” to be removed and transferred and are warning of legal action.
Panayiotis Constantinou, speaking on behalf of his family, told the AP that their lawyer had told them that the hotel, club, and everything in it belongs to the family, regardless of the cultural value of the Savva artwork.
“We respect and value culture, but this is private property that we have not been asked to remove, and besides, someone else is claiming it,” said Constantinou.
Art historians cite Savva as one of the most influential artists of the time, bringing the country’s inward-looking, traditionalist art world into modernity in the years immediately after Cyprus gained independence from British colonial rule in 1960.
As a painter and sculptor, Savva moved away from established, representative art styles by incorporating influences such as Cubism, which he picked up during his stay in London and Paris until the 1950s, into his extensive works of art. He died in 1968.
“Savva was an innovator who always wanted to break new ground and challenge the conservative times in which he lived,” said Andre Zivanari, director of the Point Center for Contemporary Art.
Savva’s work reflected the zest for life of Varosha, at the time Cyprus’s most progressive, popular tourist resort – a favorite with visitors from Europe and beyond, said Yiannis Toumazis, an art history professor and Greek Cypriot member of the committee on culture.
That all changed in the summer of 1974 when Turkey invaded after a coup d’état by proponents of a union with Greece. Turkish forces took over an empty Varosha and kept it virtually closed off until November last year, when breakaway Turkish Cypriot authorities reopened a stretch of beach to the public.
The move caused a stir among the Greek Cypriot residents of the suburb and protests from the island’s internationally recognized government over concern that the Turkish Cypriot North’s hardline wanted to bring the entire area under its control.
Androulla Vassiliou, the former First Lady of Cyprus and the co-chair of the Cultural Committee, told the AP that the body would look into bringing the reliefs to the southern part of the island once new Turkish Cypriot members are appointed.
The previous Turkish Cypriot committee members resigned collectively last December because they said opinions differed with the new Turkish Cypriot leadership on their goal of steering talks to resolve Cyprus’ divisions away from a federation-based settlement.
The recovery of works of art that disappeared during the war confusion is not without precedent. Last February, the Culture Commission successfully returned 219 paintings – including some of the most important works by Greek Cypriot artists – believed to have been lost or stolen in the north.
In return, Turkish Cypriots received rare archive footage from state broadcaster CyBC of Turkish Cypriot cultural and sporting events dating from 1955 to the early 1960s. The exchange has been hailed as a tangible way of building trust between Greek and Turkish Cypriots.
Toumazis said the return of Savva’s reliefs would be another milestone in building confidence, but it would be even better if people could return to their properties in Varosha.
“It would be nice if people would return to what they owned themselves, instead of having any artwork handed over to them,” he said.