An important conciliatory step took place in Cyprus on Monday evening, offering a rare chance for a joint Greek and Turkish Cypriot exhibition to take place in Nicosia, showcasing invaluable artworks that had been considered lost or stolen after the Turkish invasion of 1974.

A stunning total of 219 paintings are now exhibited in a hotel just inside Nicosia’s United Nations buffer zone which divides the Greek area from the Turkish-occupied part of the capital.

The collection, with artworks which are believed by experts to be worth well above six figures, includes some of Cyprus’ most iconic paintings, which were thought for decades to have been tragically lost forever.

Nicos Anastasiades, the President of Cyprus, and Mustafa Akinci, the leader of the Turkish Cypriot community, were present at the opening of the exhibition, an act which itself sent a message of peace through art.

Read more: Greek Reporter