The request by the Prosecution of Skopje, through the Ministry of Justice which was sent to the Court of Tirana, urges Albania to return the 20 icons taken illegally by Gjergji Thimio from the churches and monasteries in the western part of Macedonia.
Out of the 1147 sequestrated objects that include frescoes, church murals and bronze paintings, 20 objects belong to neighboring Macedonia.
Expert say that only 22 objects found in the home of Gjergji Thimo and his friend Spaho were not part of the cultural heritage sites, while the majority of them, up to 100 year old, resulted to be certified by the National Inventory of Cultural Property.
A report by the Albanian experts confirms that most of the objects ”‹”‹are robbed from the church of Shen Thanas in Voskopoja, Church of Shen Thanas in Karavasta, Lushnja, the Church of St. Mary in Lushnja, and the Spile monastery. Meanwhile, 454 objects are part of the cultural heritage, owned by the Albanian state. The report also revealed that some of the 16th and 17th century objects have been sawn and damaged.
The sequestrated artwork, which mainly belongs to the medieval period, is currently placed at the National Gallery of Art (NGA). Even though their placement at the NGA was first called temporary, the Ministry of Culture still does not have an idea where the cultural set will be finally placed. NGA’s specialists have expressed a few weeks ago that the collection, besides taking a lot of space, increased the risk to the Gallery facilities, due to the many insects they carried. It is expected that the collection will finally find a ‘home’ after the National Gallery finishes the disinfection process.
Earlier, the prosecution decided that 477 works of art to be preserved by the gallery and about 600 others to be left at the Tirana Police storage.
In 2014 Gjergji Thimio was sentenced to seven years in prison after being arrested in October 2013 together with Arben Spaho and Artan Koà§iu.
