French archaeologists Alain Le Brun and Odile Daune-Le Brun have been awarded the prize for the Preservation and Promotion of the Archaeological Heritage of Cyprus for 2025.
Speaking at the award ceremony on Monday evening, President of the Republic, Nikos Christodoulides, said that Cyprus owes the two French archaeologists a lot and that the prize is awarded as a token of gratitude for their long-standing and valuable contribution to the country.
He also noted that the award underlines the very close and long-standing relationship between Cyprus and France, a country that has supported and promoted the cultural heritage of Cyprus for many decades.
‘It is precisely for this reason that within the framework of the Cyprus Presidency of the Council of the EU we decided that an important exhibition will be held in Paris,’ he pointed out.
The President said that the tragic events of the Turkish invasion of 1974 and the ongoing occupation of part of Cyprus by Turkish troops were devastating for the cultural heritage of the country, as many archaeological sites, museums and religious monuments were looted and destroyed, resulting in thousands of unique archaeological objects, unfortunately, being sent to international markets and becoming the subject of illegal trafficking.
He also said that the foreign archaeological missions that have been active in Cyprus since the beginning of the 20th century have played a decisive role in expanding our knowledge of ancient Cyprus and in its international promotion, through scientific research and publication.
Chair of the Selection Committee, Professor Maria Iakovou, referred to the rationale for the award, saying that the two archaeologists’s scientific work and their continuous active presence in the archaeological field of Cyprus exceed half a century and dates back to before the Turkish invasion of 1974.
‘The Committee unanimously recognized that Alain Le Brun and Odile Daune-Le Brun, not only did not abandon Cyprus when they were also displaced from their research field in the remote land of the Karpasia (now occupied by Turkish troops since 1974) but they also rescued, studied and published archaeological data of primary importance from the occupied and currently inaccessible Neolithic site of Kastros on Apostolos Andreas, which has in the meantime been destroyed by the Turkish occupation army,’ she stressed.
Iakovou that the Selection Committee underlines that they are models of scientific and ethical conduct because all these years – despite the scientific cost – they have remained strictly committed to UNESCO’s clauses calling for the avoidance of conducting research in occupied territories.