{"id":412064,"date":"2026-09-27T14:18:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T14:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/412064\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T14:18:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T14:18:15","slug":"lost-florida-painting-has-been-found-103-years-later-it-was-hanging-in-a-church-in-greece","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/412064\/","title":{"rendered":"Lost Florida Painting Has Been Found 103 Years Later. It Was Hanging in a Church in Greece"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEED TO KNOW<\/p>\n

A century-old religious painting connected to a Florida Greek Orthodox community in Tarpon Springs has been rediscovered in Greece<\/p>\n

The artwork was sent to Greece for restoration more than 100 years ago but was never returned<\/p>\n

Local officials are now working with church leaders in hopes of bringing the painting back to Florida<\/p>\n

A painting that belonged<\/a> to a cathedral in Florida and went missing over 100 years ago has been rediscovered in Greece.<\/p>\n

The painting \u2014 which features a religious icon \u2014 was presented to the St. Nicholas Greek Church (now Cathedral) in Tarpon Springs, a city on Florida’s Gulf coast, by a group of immigrants from the Greek Island of Aegina in 1910, according to a recent Facebook post<\/a> from Tarpon Springs Mayor John Koulianos.<\/p>\n

The gesture held special significance, as Tarpon Springs was \u2014 and remains \u2014 the home of many people of Greek ancestry.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in Florida.
Credit: Getty<\/p>\n

The painting was damaged in a fire and was returned to Greece in 1923 to be restored. However, it was never returned to the cathedral.<\/p>\n

Koulianos made a special trip to Greece<\/a> in July with the dual goal of locating the painting and finalizing details of a ceremony that would officially make Tarpon Springs and Aegina twin cities.<\/p>\n

“I believe I may have been successful in achieving both goals,” he wrote in his post.<\/p>\n

While speaking to local news outlet Fox 13 Tampa Bay<\/a>, Koulianos said that he met with the mayor of Aegina during his visit, who in turn made a call to a local priest who knew the location of the lost painting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Koulianos then found the piece \u2014 which dated back to the Byzantine Empire \u2014 hanging in a local church.<\/p>\n

“It’s about the size of maybe like a movie poster \u2026 a little bit too big to put in a suitcase,” Koulianos said while speaking to the outlet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I was thinking about that, and maybe I could just grab it and that wasn’t going to happen,” he jokingly added.<\/p>\n

Never miss a story \u2014 sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter<\/a> to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The St. Nicholas Icon painting.
Credit: John Koulianos, Mayor of Tarpon Springs\/Facebook<\/p>\n

Koulianos and city officials are now awaiting approval from Florida Greek Orthodox church officials to bring the painting<\/a> back to Tarpon Springs.<\/p>\n

The Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Atlanta, which oversees Greek Orthodox parishes across a number of southern states, including Florida, did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment on the status of their decision.<\/p>\n

Read the original article on People<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEED TO KNOW A century-old religious painting connected to a Florida Greek Orthodox community in Tarpon Springs has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":412065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,103852,163376,163375,4784],"class_list":["post-412064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-greece","tag-greek-orthodox","tag-john-koulianos","tag-tarpon-springs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}