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Looting and the Lawful Trade in Cyprus: A Parallel Timeline, 1860s to 2026

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For a century and a half two trades in Cypriot antiquities ran side by side. One was illicit: digging without a permit, theft from collections and churches, smuggling past the customs house or across the ceasefire line. The other was lawful: firmans and the partage of finds, export permits, the Cyprus Museum's own sale counter, licensed dealers, registered collections and, after 1974, purchases on the open market by the Republic's partners. The two shared diggers, sites, buyers and sometimes the same objects, so this entry sets them out together, illicit on the left and lawful on the right, in five periods from the 1860s to 2026. Police estimates and one-sided claims are marked as such. The photograph above, a frame from John Lindros's film of the Swedish Cyprus Expedition, shows the curator Menelaos Markides with Rupert Gunnis, who between them ran the Cyprus Museum's division of finds and its saleroom in the late 1920s.

Ottoman Cyprus to 1878

Before 1869 digging ran on personal firmans, and finds on private land belonged to the landowner, so collectors bought or leased the fields they wanted to dig [1, p. 290]. The 1874 regulation divided the finds of a licensed dig into thirds and allowed export with the Minister's leave. Village men dug for wages and a price per find, and most of what they did was not a crime. The left column records the digging that the authorities objected to or punished.

  1. 1865–69

    Looting and illicit tradeAt Dali "independent diggers" work "on their kismet" beside Cesnola's paid men. The Cadi arrests a party of them carrying skulls for the American consul [2, pp. 79–80].

    Lawful export and tradeFor about four years after arriving in 1865, the American consul Luigi Palma di Cesnola is free to dig and to export his finds [1, p. 290].

  2. 1868

    Lawful export and tradeAt Dali, after locusts ruin the crops, villagers dig tombs "in the hope of gaining a shilling or two a day"; five young men find a treasure worth about £800 (Hamilton Lang, quoted in [3, p. 128]).

  3. 1869

    Lawful export and tradeThe first Ottoman regulation bans the export of excavated finds except coins, but declares that antiquities found on private land belong to the landowner [1, p. 295].

  4. 1870–71

    Lawful export and tradeCesnola sells antiquities at the Hôtel Drouot, Paris (March 1870), and at Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, London (January and May 1871) [4, pp. 21–23].

  5. 1871

    Lawful export and tradeTo avoid sending half his finds to Constantinople, Cesnola buys the land at Athienou where his diggers have found sculpture [1, p. 290].

  6. 1874

    Looting and illicit tradeUnlicensed digging is made punishable by confiscation and a fine of one to five Turkish pounds [1, p. 290].

    Lawful export and tradeThe March 1874 regulation divides a licensed dig's finds in thirds (Government, finder, landowner) and allows export with the Minister's leave [1, p. 290].

  7. 1878

    Looting and illicit tradeWolseley bans all excavation. Alessandro Palma di Cesnola keeps digging, is arrested in October, tried at Larnaca and has his finds confiscated [5].

British rule, 1878 to 1960

Each British law kept a lawful route out of the island: a share of the finds for licensed excavators, export permits for "duplicates", and from 1926 a saleroom in the Cyprus Museum's courtyard. The 1935 law created the Department of Antiquities, licensed dealers and allowed declared private collections. The illicit record for these decades is thin and comes mostly from officials, among them the charge that the man running the saleroom used the permit system for his own exports.

  1. 1883–92

    Lawful export and tradeThe Lawrence-Cesnola collection, more than 14,000 objects, is sold in four Sotheby's sales in London [6, p. 23].

  2. 1905

    Lawful export and tradeThe Antiquities Law of 1905 requires written permission for export and lets the Museum Committee sell "duplicate specimens" [7; 8, p. 23].

  3. 1923, 1927

    Lawful export and tradeAmendments restore the excavator's half-share; the 1927 change lets the Swedish Cyprus Expedition take its share [8, p. 23].

  4. 1926–30

    Lawful export and tradeGunnis runs the Museum's sales of duplicates and enlarges the stock from about 500 items to about 2,000; revenue peaks at £406 in 1930 [7]. See how the Cyprus Museum sold antiquities.

  5. 1927–31

    Lawful export and tradeThe Swedish Cyprus Expedition digs about twenty-one sites. Under the division of October 1930 Sweden receives about two-thirds of nearly 18,000 finds [9].

  6. 1933

    Looting and illicit trade390 pots from Marion are auctioned at Sotheby's as "duplicates". In 1936 the first Director of Antiquities, John Hilton, alleges that Gunnis approved his own export permits [7].

  7. 1935

    Lawful export and tradeThe 1935 law creates the Department of Antiquities, ends the excavator's share, requires the Director's export licence, licenses dealers, permits declared collections and makes the Director pay finders "fair market value" for finds he keeps [10; 8, p. 23].

  8. 1935–36

    Lawful export and tradeCollections are declared to the Department in Famagusta district, among them that of the licensed trader George Basil Palma, who files monthly returns of his sales [11].

  9. 1936–60

    Lawful export and tradeDirector A. H. S. Megaw licenses three dealers, among them Petros Kolokasides, holding it "in the interests of the Department to stimulate the trade in antiquities through the authorised channels" [12, pp. 46–47].

  10. 1955

    Looting and illicit tradeWith full employment and increased security, "there was nearly no illicit digging" (Megaw's annual report, quoted in [13, p. 462]).

The Republic, 1960 to 1974

From December 1963 intercommunal fighting left Turkish Cypriot enclaves outside the Department's control, and tombs there were looted on a large scale. Under the "silent accord" Greek Cypriots with access to the enclaves were allowed to buy the finds so that they stayed on the island, and the collections were registered item by item by December 1973. The Cyprus Museum itself bought looted material from villagers, through intermediaries and across the line. The digging was illicit. The right column records that the objects then passed into registered and largely public hands; see the private collecting of Cypriot antiquities.

  1. 1963–73

    Looting and illicit tradeLooting in Turkish Cypriot villages, "enclaves which were not controlled by the authorities of the Republic of Cyprus", above all at Souskiou, Marki, Kotchati and Alaas [14, pp. 17–18].

    Lawful export and tradeWith the ministry's agreement the Department follows a "silent accord", letting Cypriots with access to the enclaves buy the finds so that they are not exported [14, pp. 17–18].

  2. 1964

    Lawful export and tradeAn amendment vests all excavated finds in the Cyprus Museum; dealing, collecting and licensed export continue [15].

  3. 1965–66

    Looting and illicit tradeVillagers open a warrior tomb at Kouklia-Mavrommatis, where no control can be exercised because of the political situation [16].

    Lawful export and tradeThe Cyprus Museum buys the tomb group from the villagers, then excavates the robbed tomb [16].

  4. 1970

    Lawful export and tradeUnable to act otherwise, the Department tries to recover objects "en les achetant indirectement", by buying them indirectly [17].

  5. 1970–74

    Lawful export and tradeKarageorghis, as Director, buys "a good number of important objects" in the enclaves for the Cyprus Museum, paying with "a government cheque from the Central Bank" [18, pp. 102–103].

  6. 1972

    Looting and illicit tradeLooters find a Late Bronze Age four-wheeled bronze stand in a Turkish Cypriot village in Famagusta district; the Department fails to acquire it [19, p. 67].

  7. Before 1974

    Looting and illicit tradeThe Chalcolithic cemetery of Souskiou-Vathyrkakas, near Palaipaphos, is looted; the Hadjiprodromou picrolites are believed to come from it [19, p. 58].

  8. 1973

    Lawful export and tradeObjects "qui circulaient sur le marché" are bought for the Cyprus Museum with a donation from A. Leventis, Cyprus's Ambassador to UNESCO [20].

  9. 1973

    Lawful export and tradeOwners declare their collections in the last six months of the year [14, pp. 17–18]; every item gets a card with a description and photograph, and the work ends in December [21]. The Hadjiprodromou collection is registered [19, p. 54].

After the Turkish invasion, 1974 to 1997

The Turkish invasion of 1974 put the north, with the Famagusta and Kyrenia museums and several registered collections, out of the Republic's reach. The illicit column now has two strands: archaeology, mainly registered collections broken up and small seizures recorded by Turkish Cypriot officials themselves; and church art, mostly medieval icons, frescoes and mosaics, which reached the market through a network based in Munich. They are different objects and different markets, partly handled by the same people. On the lawful side, licensed export continued until 1996, the Museum's sale of duplicates until 1991, and the Leventis Foundation bought on the London market for the Cyprus Museum.

  1. 1975

    Looting and illicit tradeLooting of the Hadjiprodromou collection in occupied Famagusta begins; it is believed every item was stolen and exported [19, p. 54].

  2. 3 Oct 1975

    Looting and illicit tradeTurkish Cypriot officials close their inquiry into 217 antiquities seized from the shop of the mayor of Morphou, a licensed dealer; some bear the initials of the registered Hadjiloizides collection. 72 more are found in his house [22, p. 151].

  3. 27 Apr 1976

    Looting and illicit tradeHadjiprodromou pieces appear in a Christie's London sale; the owner claims them [19, pp. 54, 58].

  4. 1976–79

    Looting and illicit tradeChurch art: the sixth-century apse mosaic of the Panagia Kanakaria, Lythrankomi, is removed between August 1976 and October 1979 [23, p. 234; 24].

  5. 1977–82

    Looting and illicit trade"Early opportunist raids" are followed by "more organised looting of selected targets" (van der Werff for the Council of Europe, 1989, quoted in [25, p. 131]).

  6. 1978

    Lawful export and tradeThe 1972 stand, refused by the British Museum and the Louvre, is bought from a dealer near Frankfurt "with a grant from the Cyprus Government and Mr A. G. Leventis" [19, p. 67].

  7. 1979

    Lawful export and tradeCyprus ratifies the 1970 UNESCO Convention [23, p. 239]; see UNESCO 1970.

  8. 1979–89

    Lawful export and tradeThe Leventis Foundation buys Cypriot antiquities, mostly on the London market, for the Cyprus Museum, "only items which could not be identified as belonging to a specific museum or collection" [19, pp. 11, 62].

  9. 1980–82

    Looting and illicit tradeAntiquities sold by the Morphou dealer are seized as buyers take them out: 14 pieces at Tymbou airport in October 1980, 18 sold to a German for DM 1,000 in January 1982 [22, p. 151].

  10. 16 Mar 1981

    Looting and illicit tradeThree chests bound for Germany through Ankara airport hold 158 "antiques", those identified being icons [22, p. 144].

  11. 1981

    Lawful export and tradeRecovered Hadjiprodromou picrolites are bought from the owner by the Leventis Foundation for the Cyprus Museum (1981/V-4/9) [19, p. 54].

  12. 1983

    Lawful export and tradeObjects registered by 31 December 1973 and not needed by the Museum may be exported with a Department permit; the Department keeps a Sales Register for universities and museums (Karageorghis, in [26]).

  13. 1983–84

    Looting and illicit tradeChurch art: frescoes from a chapel near Lysi, cut into 38 pieces, are offered in Munich with a forged export permit [27].

    Lawful export and tradeWith the assent of the Department and the Church, the Menil Foundation pays about $520,000 for them and becomes their custodian [27].

  14. 1988–90

    Looting and illicit tradeChurch art: four Kanakaria fragments sold at Geneva in 1988 are ordered returned to the Church by an Indiana court on 3 August 1989, affirmed in 1990 [23, p. 235; 24].

  15. 1991

    Lawful export and tradeThe Cyprus Museum's sale of duplicates is abolished [7].

  16. c. 1991

    Looting and illicit tradeHadjiprodromou pieces on "the 'secret market'" are "bought by the State from 'intermediaries'"; Karageorghis speaks of "blackmail" [28].

    Lawful export and tradeThe Leventis Foundation pays "over £8,000" for two pieces from a London antiquities shop [28].

  17. 1996

    Lawful export and tradeAn amendment prohibits dealing and ends licensed export of private antiquities [15]; see the legal export of Cypriot antiquities.

From the Munich seizure to 2026

The Munich raids of October 1997 ended the operation that had moved church art out of the occupied north, though the returns ran until 2024. Aydın Dikmen, the Munich dealer at its centre, was never convicted of an offence concerning Cypriot antiquities. In the south, the recorded offences after 2000 are mostly single finders with metal detectors, with one organised ring in 2010. The lawful column now consists of objects that left the island under the earlier rules and are resold or bought back abroad.

  1. 1997

    Looting and illicit tradeChurch art: in September Michel van Rijn buys 32 Antiphonitis frescoes for $124,000 for return to Cyprus. On 10 October Munich police arrest Dikmen and find Cypriot frescoes, mosaics and icons, with ancient coins [29].

  2. 1999, 2002

    Lawful export and tradeThe United States restricts imports of Cypriot ecclesiastical material (1999), then archaeological material (July 2002) [30].

  3. 6 Nov 2001

    Lawful export and tradeChristie's South Kensington sells the Desmond Morris collection, formed "between 1967 and 1976, mainly on the London art market"; the Leventis Foundation buys some lots [31].

  4. 23 Jan 2002

    Lawful export and tradeThe Foundation gives its Morris purchases to the Department of Antiquities [31].

  5. 1999–2008

    Lawful export and tradeThe Foundation buys nine objects "from dealers" for the Cyprus Museum, among them a Red Polished wine-press model "most probably found by tomb looters in the Vounous-Bellapais cemetery" [32, pp. 28–29].

  6. 2008

    Looting and illicit tradeVillagers in the Kourris valley, Limassol district, report dozens of tombs plundered [33].

  7. Jan 2010

    Looting and illicit tradeLimassol–Paphos ring: nine arrests (ten in the police spokesman's account), over 100 objects, price catalogues, a retired policeman among the suspects. Police value: about €11 million, reported abroad as $15.5 million. The Director: "rare antiquities are not included" [34; 35].

  8. 26 Nov 2012

    Looting and illicit tradeDeath in Nicosia of Mehmet Ali İlkman, named with Dikmen in accounts of the network in the north [36].

  9. 2012–17

    Looting and illicit tradeIn the Republic: 67 complaints, 31 cases sent for prosecution, three people imprisoned [37].

  10. 2015

    Looting and illicit tradeA former Director of Antiquities reports "recent large-scale looting" at Agia Irini in the occupied north-west [25, p. 132].

  11. 2020

    Looting and illicit tradeDeath of Dikmen, the dealer whose leased flats in Germany police had searched in 1997 [38].

  12. Feb 2024

    Looting and illicit tradeA Cypro-Archaic limestone statue is found hidden in a sheep pen at Marathovounos in the occupied north; police value it at about €150,925 [39].

  13. June–July 2024

    Looting and illicit tradeThe last 60 objects of the Dikmen case return: 24 ecclesiastical relics and 36 "prehistoric and other antiquities" [40; 38]. On 22 July the Bishop of Karpasia states that Dikmen's heirs still hold and trade stolen Cypriot goods [41].

  14. Oct 2024

    Lawful export and tradeChurch art: the Bishop of Kykkos describes buying artefacts at auction to repatriate them; the Archbishop says the Church should claim, not buy [42].

  15. 2025–26

    Looting and illicit tradeThe Department has lots withdrawn at small houses: a juglet at the Cotswold Auction Company (November 2025) [43], 18 objects at Sloans & Kenyon (February 2026). No trafficker is named [44].

  16. Sept 2026

    Looting and illicit tradeA man with a metal detector is arrested near Kouklia (Palaipaphos) [45].

Evidence against reading the right column as clean

Lawful export and lawful excavation are different things, and much of what left the island lawfully, or entered registered collections, was dug illicitly. Karageorghis called the 1963–73 material the "spoils" of looting [14, pp. 17–18]. A later Director, Sophocles Hadjisavvas, wrote that it all came "from illicit excavations", that "at least one collector had organised teams of illicit diggers" and that "more than 1250 people had become collectors" (quoted in [13, p. 462]). The Cyprus Museum's own purchases included looted tomb groups [16].

Samuel Hardy argues that the silent accord protected a revenue stream for looters and for the paramilitaries who controlled the enclaves [13, p. 462]. Read precisely, his case is narrower than its citers make it. The accord was public in a letter Karageorghis printed in Antiquity in 1976 [21], and the 1973 measure was a declaration window under the 1935 law, not an amnesty statute. His "almost half" of the Severis material looted by Greek Cypriots rests on 35 of 77 objects with a recorded findspot, about 12 per cent of the catalogue, 31 of them from Alaas, by a method he calls "crude". His data also show that Turkish Cypriot participation in 1963–74 "possibly constituted the majority" [13, p. 471].

The state and its partners paid into the market, including intermediaries holding stolen material [28], and the Church was still buying at auction in 2024 [42]. A top end also exists. Our own unpublished research on about 3,500 recorded sales finds that about 3 per cent of Cypriot lots reached $10,000 and under 1 per cent reached $50,000; the highest, €448,250 in 2003, was a Chalcolithic picrolite figure of the class dug at Souskiou [19, p. 58].

The two tracks side by side

Set together, the columns show four things. A lawful channel existed in every decade from the 1860s to 1996, on a scale the left column does not approach: Cesnola's sales, more than 14,000 Lawrence-Cesnola objects, two-thirds of 18,000 Swedish finds, the saleroom and licensed export. Before 1974 the two columns often hold the same objects: the Souskiou picrolites were looted, registered in a Famagusta collection, stolen again and sold in London. The dated archaeological entries for the occupied north cluster in 1975–82; later cases are mainly church art and the Munich residue, and in the south mostly single finders. From 1978 into the 2000s the right column includes the Republic's partners buying on the open market, among them part of the Morris collection, assembled in London from 1967 to 1976.

For an object on the market today, a sale record, export licence, saleroom label or collection number from before 1996 gives it a documented place in the right column. A history that begins after 1974 without such a record falls under the presumption the market now applies. How to read those documents is explained in the article on export licences and labels and in provenance and provenience.

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