Minister ‘misinformed’ over printmaking museum

The interior minister has “been misinformed” about the Hambis Printmaking Museum, founder Hambis Tsangaris said on Friday, following remarks to media that the administrator of Turkish Cypriot properties had undertaken to renovate the building housing the museum in Platanistia village in the Limassol district. “An outrage, mister minister! You have been misinformed,” Tsangaris said. On Wednesday, Tsangaris had invited friends of the museum to take whatever they needed free of charge, such as building materials, plumbing and plants, as the printmaking museum and school would be demolished. Tsangaris blamed the administrator of Turkish Cypriot properties for the mess. He said he had built the museum and school on the ruins left on Turkish Cypriot land allotted to him by the government, but now “the countdown is beginning” with demolitions so that the buildings can be returned in the state he found them in. “They turned us into refugees in 1974, they use us, they deceived us, they exploited us and they continue to do so,” Tsangaris said. He added that for years human rights commissioners had been trying to sort things out but the administrator continued “to do their own thing”. The Tsangaris family, he said, had repeatedly sent letters over the years for the lease to be transferred to the museum and school to chairman Yiorgos Tsangaris, only to be told that the lease was not transferable by hereditary succession. Tsangaris said thousands of people had visited the museum and attended free lessons. “This is our aim, this is how we serve our Cyprus.” He added that the administrator suggested that Tsangaris established a company and held 51 per cent of the shares in order to make the transfer possible. “I have never owned stock in my life, I don’t want any, I don’t need any. My need is to express myself through art and offer what I can to the people so we can elevate the cultural level of this country,” he explained. Tsangaris pointed out that the museum houses “over 6,000 engravings dating back to the 16th century”, and wondered what would happen to them. The board of the non-profit Hambis Printmaking Museum said it “shared Hambis Tsangaris’ disappointment and distress”. It called for the leased buildings housing the museum and school to be transferred to the non-profit company, thus “securing the continuity of the work producing culture that honours Cyprus on a non-profit basis”. In response, the administrator of Turkish Cypriot properties issued a statement saying it acknowledged “Hambis Tsangaris’ important cultural service and the contribution of the Printmaking School and Museum to Cyprus culture”. Tsangaris said he initially wondered why the authorities had changed their tune, and then realised that “the civilised announcement came from Nicosia”. However, Tsangaris pointed out “inaccurate information”, such as repairs approved and funded by the administrator. “There have never been any repairs with the financial contribution of the Turkish Cypriot property service on buildings of the Hambis Printmaking School-Museum in Platanistia,” Tsangaris stressed. The only works carried out, he said, were a cesspit and other works for a neighbouring house, from which water was seeping into the museum’s archives. “Worst of all”, he added, was a statement on Friday by Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou on Politis radio that the administrator was financially supporting the maintenance of buildings over the past years, at least since 2023 when he took over the ministry, and that the funding was more than Tsangaris was spending. “An outrage, mister minister! You have been misinformed,” Tsangaris said, adding that repairs had been carried out two decades ago. The administrator also said efforts would be made to secure the continuation of the cultural activity of the museum and school. “I read this and I think I’m dreaming,” Tsangaris concluded.