Underground Antiquities Trade... with a twist

One of the more despicable yet fascinating results of the Turkish military invasion of Cyprus in the summer of 1974 has been the looting of religious art and antiquities in northern Cyprus, a zone under the control of the Turkish military since the invasion. Following an attempted coup by an underground Greek military junta, the Turkish military entered the country from the north coast. By the end of that summer, an impermeable barrier called the Buffer Zone prohibiting contact between Turkish and Greek Cypriots.

Over the years that followed, churches and archaeological sites north of the Buffer Zone that were no longer inhabited by Greek Orthodox authorities or the Department of Antiquities were pillaged and looted of their most prized possessions. In addition, the condition of churches and monasteries (some over a millennium old) were turned into stables and storage facilities and undocumented archaeological sites (many millennia old) were left for ruin. The artwork slipped into the underground antiquities trade because of its easy export from northern Cyprus and over the past decades, work has been found all over the world, both in main stream auctions and private collections, that was originally taken from Cyprus. It has been estimated that tens of thousands of items have been looted from northern Cyprus over the past 35 years.

The issue became international famous after a landmark case involving Peg Goldberg, an art dealer from Indiana, was won by the Church of Cyprus to return a number of mosaics from Panagia Kanakaria Church near Famagusta. The case garnered such attention after a number of appeals denied Goldberg the right to the mosaics because she did not purchase them in good faith. The mosaics are now on display at the Byzantine Museum in Nicosia. Irreparable damage has been done to the mosaics after being cut from the curved apse of the church and packaged haphazardly.

6th century mosaic of Jesus from Kanakaria (http://noctoc-noctoc.blogspot.com)

Yesterday, news broke about the most recent find, which is completely surprising but ends happily. Boy George, the pop singer, was contacted by the Church of Cyprus after a bishop saw a large icon (or painting on wood) in the background of an interview with George in his home. The 300+ year old icon from the Church of St. Charalambous in New Chorio Kithrea in northern Cyprus was purchased by the singer, who apparently is a collector of religious art, in 1985. Fortunately, the singer was gracious enough to repatriate the item without any questioning.

Boy George with a bishop and the icon in question (BBC)

An interview with Boy George regarding the Icon can be found here.

This story was referred to me by Amy.