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NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) – The Minister of Communications of Cyprus has stated that a mosaic of St Mark's in the 6th century, sacked in the 6th century and removed from a Christian Orthodox church more than 40 years ago, has remained intact on the island island of the Mediterranean.
Minister Vassiliki Anastassiadou said the mosaic arrived in Cyprus on Sunday. It had already been given to church members and government officials at the country's embassy in the Netherlands.
The mosaic depicting a young St. Mark was one of many missing people from the church of Panayia Kanakaria after the split of Cyprus into two ethnic groups, Greek and Turkish, in 1974.
A mosaic of St. Andrew of the same church was repatriated in April.
They are part of a handful of works of this type that survived a period during the eighth and ninth centuries, during which many orthodox icons were destroyed.
