Missing 1,600-year-old mosaic returned after four decades

A 1,600-year-old missing mosaic has finally returned to its home in Cyprus, more than four decades after it was looted from a church.

Dutch art historian and art crime investigator Arthur Brand spent the past three years tracking down the stolen artifact, a Byzantine-era depiction of Saint Mark, Brand said on his website.

The relic was handed over to the Cypriot Antiquities Department and the Church of Cyprus during a ceremony at the Hague in the Netherlands on Sunday, according to Cyprus News Agency.

The sixth-century mosaic was stolen from the church of Panaya Kanakaria in northern Cyprus following the Turkish invasion in 1974. It was one of several icons looted from the church during this time and believed to be the last recovered.

Dutch art detective Arthur Brand poses with the missing mosaic of St. Mark, a rare piece of stolen Byzantine art from Cyprus.

“This is a very special piece that’s more than 1,600 years old. It’s one of the last and most beautiful examples of art from the early Byzantine era,” Brand told Agence France-Presse.

It was the hunt of a lifetime for Brand and one that took him across Europe, where “informants were arrested in unrelated cases” and “people got scared and disappeared,” he claimed in a post on his website.

Brand managed to trace the mosaic to an apartment of a British family in Monaco who were “horrified” to find out the piece was looted treasure.

Video Ad Feedback

How do art auctions really work?

03:09 - Source: CNN

“It was in the possession of a British family, who bought the mosaic in good faith more than four decades ago,” he told AFP.

The owner, according to Brand, agreed to return the artwork to Cyprus and was offered a symbolic compensation for taking care of it over the years.

Brand is a well known figure in the art crime world. He’s recovered well over 200 works of art, including ancient Aztec artifacts, antique porcelain plates and numerous paintings looted by the Nazis.

In one of his most high profile cases, Brand aided German police in the retrieval of a pair of bronze horse sculptures by Josef Thorak that once belonged to Adolf Hitler.

In 2016, Brand helped to recover five stolen artworks of the Dutch Golden Age from a Ukrainian militia force.

The "Apollo and Venus" painting by 16th-century Dutch master Otto van Veen (1556-1629) was discovered in the closet of an art gallery in Iowa, and is likely worth over $4 million.

Scroll through the gallery for other examples of lost and found artworks.

One of a triptych of artworks created by Ben Enwonwu during the aftermath of Nigeria's bloody civil war, "Tutu" disappeared shortly after being painted in 1974. Its whereabouts remained the subject of intense speculation for over 40 years before the portrait was discovered in a family home late last year. In March, it sold for over $1.6 million (£1,205,000).

"Two Hacks" (1789) by George Stubbs was sold at a Christie's "Living with Art" sale in New York in June 2016 -- originally listed as a copy. Art dealer Archie Parker -- believing it to be a real Stubbs -- purchased the painting for $175,000 ($215,000 with premium). The painting is currently hanging on his stand at the annual British Antique Dealers' Association (BADA) Fair in London, with an asking price of $900,000.

Rembrandt's drawing of a dog has been in the collection of the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum in Braunschweig, Germany, since 1770, but was long thought to be the work of a different artist.

In 2016, a drawing attributed to Italian master Leonardo da Vinci was discovered in Paris, after a portfolio of works was brought to Tajan auction house for valuation by a retired doctor. It was valued at 15 million euros ($16 million).

The drawing also features sketches of light and shadows and notes on the back.

While researching for an episode of BBC's "Britain's Lost Masterpieces" series at the National Trust for Scotland's Haddo House collection in Aberdeenshire, art historian Bendor Grosvenor and a team of experts found a painting that could have been painted by artist Raphael.

In April 2016, a painting believed to be by Caravaggio was found in an attic in France. Experts said it could be worth $136 million.

The work was originally purchased for $25 dollars at the end of the 19th century. It could now be worth $26 million.

In 1911, Leonardo Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" was stolen from the Louvre by an Italian who had been a handyman for the museum. The famous painting was recovered two years later.

A statue called "Young Girl with Serpent" by Auguste Rodin was stolen from a home in Beverly Hills, California, in 1991. It was returned after someone offered it on consignment to Christie's auction house. Rodin, a French sculptor considered by some aficionados to have been the father of modern sculpture, lived from 1840 until 1917. His most famous work, "The Thinker," shows a seated man with his chin on his hand.

Picasso's "La Coiffeuse" ("The Hairdresser") was discovered missing in 2001 and was recovered when it was shipped from Belgium to the United States in December 2014. The shipper said it was a $37 piece of art being sent to the United States as a Christmas present. The feds say it was actually a stolen Picasso, missing for more than a decade and worth millions of dollars.

Italy's Culture Ministry unveils two paintings by the French artists Paul Gauguin and Pierre Bonnard on April 2, 2014. The paintings, worth millions of euros, were stolen from a family house in London in 1970, abandoned on a train and then later sold at a lost-property auction, where a factory worker paid 45,000 Italian lire for them -- roughly equivalent to 22 euros ($30).

A Renoir painting finished in the 1800s, loaned to a museum, reported stolen in 1951 and then bought at a flea market in 2010 has to be returned to the museum, a judge ruled on January 10, 2014. The 5½-by-9-inch painting, titled "Landscape on the Banks of the Seine," was bought for $7 at a flea market by a Virginia woman. The estimated value is between $75,000 and $100,000.

Seven famous paintings were stolen from the Kunsthal Museum in Rotterdam, Netherlands, in 2012, including Claude Monet's "Charing Cross Bridge, London." The paintings, in oil and watercolor, include Pablo Picasso's "Harlequin Head," Henri Matisse's "Reading Girl in White and Yellow," Lucian Freud's "Woman with Eyes Closed" and Claude Monet's "Waterloo Bridge," seen here. Works by Gauguin and Meyer de Haan were also taken.

Eight months after Salvador Dali's "Cartel de Don Juan Tenorio" was stolen in a New York gallery, a Greek national was indicted on a grand larceny charge in 2013.

In 1473, Hans Memling's "The Last Judgment" was stolen by pirates and became the first documented art theft.

Adam Worth, the inspiration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's diabolical character Moriarty, stole "Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire," painted by Thomas Gainsborough in 1876.

Among their many crimes, the Nazis plundered precious artworks as they gained power during World War II. "Adele Bloch-Bauer I," by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt, was confiscated from the owner when he fled from Austria.

Many works of art that were taken by the Nazis were never recovered. Others were returned after years of legal battles. "Christ Carrying the Cross," by Italian artist Girolamo de' Romani, was returned to his family in 2012.

"The Scream" was one of two Edvard Munch paintings that were stolen from the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway, in 2004.

In 2007, Pablo Picasso's oil painting ''Portrait of Suzanne Bloch" was taken from the Sao Paulo Museum of Art. It was recovered two years later.

Lost and found: Incredible works discovered

Prev Next

The mosaic of Saint Mark, believed to have been made around 550 AD, was one of many that adorned the walls of the Panaya Kanakaria church, about 65 miles northeast of the Cypriot capital, Nicosia.

The mosaics are thought to be some of the most important surviving pieces of early Christian artwork, and are considered “part of the Cypriote soul,” Brand said.

In April, a mosaic depicting the Apostle Andrew that had been looted from the same church was returned and put on display at the Byzantine Museum in Nicosia, local media reported.