The chapel was opened in February 1997, and displayed masterworks from the 13th century—a dome with Christ Pantocrator and an apse depicting the Virgin Mary, the Panagia. The frescoes had been stolen from a chapel near Lysi in the Turkish-occupied section of Cyprus in the 1980s, cut into 38 pieces, and shipped to Germany by thieves to sell them in the arts black-market. The 38 fresco fragments were bought from the thieves by the Houston-based Menil Foundation on behalf of the Church of Cyprus, the rightful owner of the frescoes. The Menil Foundation then funded a careful restoration of the paintings. These intact frescoes were unique in the western hemisphere.