Nicosia - A Turkish dealer in stolen art was arrested after raids on his Munich apartment uncovered about £30 million ($46 million) in Byzantine treasures looted from churches in the northern third of Cyprus, writes Michael Jansen.
The operation began with a "sting". Archbishop Chrysostomos of the Cyprus Orthodox Church provided the Honorary Consul of Cyprus in Holland with funds to purchase documented stolen artefacts, through a Rotterdam art dealer, from a Turkish resident of Munich, Mr Hikmet Aydin, who claims to be an archaeologist. The art dealer photographed the transaction and deposited the items in a Rotterdam bank.
The Cyprus police handed over the photographic evidence to the Bavarian force, which arrested Mr Aydin and twice raided his flat. Police found more than 30 boxes and cases of priceless 14th-century frescoes, icons, bibles and mosaics stolen from Cypriot churches and monasteries hidden in secret compartments. One 6th-century mosaic, a medallion of St Jude, from the Church of the Virgin of Kanakaria, is valued at $8.6 million alone.