The Occupied North after 1974
The Turkish invasion of 1974 left about 37 per cent of Cyprus, with Salamis, Enkomi, Lapithos, Vounous, Soli and hundreds of churches, outside the control of the Republic and its Department of Antiquities. The entries in this part of the section deal with what was taken from the occupied north, when, by whom and how much of it has been recovered. They also deal with the much larger number of objects from the same sites that had left the island lawfully, through excavators' shares, the Cyprus Museum's saleroom and licensed export, decades before the invasion.
How to use these entries
The entries are in two groups. Antiquities covers archaeological objects: the excavated finds, the tombs and the museum and excavation stores of the north. Church art covers icons, frescoes and mosaics taken from churches, which is a separate trade with its own buyers, prices and court cases, and is kept apart so that the two are not counted together. The reasons for that separation are set out in church art and antiquities.
Northern types with lawful histories explains why an object of a type made in the north, such as a Red Polished jug of the kind found at Vounous, is not by that fact an object looted after 1974. The summary of the whole period, from the first raids to the recoveries, remains looting in occupied northern Cyprus after 1974. For how the year 1974 came to be used as the line against which every Cypriot object is judged, see the 1974 presumption.
Church art
Church Art in the Occupied North after 1974: Churches, Icons, Mosaics and Frescoes
What happened to the churches of the occupied north of Cyprus and their icons, mosaics and wall...
The Kyrenia Castle Icon Depot: 225 Icons Missing in 1981
How icons from the churches of Lambousa, the Metropolis of Morphou and Larnaka tis Lapithou were...
The Kanakaria Mosaics: Theft, Sale in Geneva and Return
The sixth-century apse mosaic of the Panagia Kanakaria at Lythrankomi in the occupied north of...
The Lysi Frescoes: Bought to Be Returned
The thirteenth-century dome and apse paintings of the chapel of Ayios Themonianos (St Euphemianos)...
Christ Antiphonitis: The Frescoes and Icons of a Kyrenia Range Church after 1974
The church of Christ Antiphonitis near Kalograia, in the Kyrenia range in the occupied north of...
St Barnabas Monastery near Salamis: Its Icons after 1974 and the Museum in the Church
The monastery of the Apostle Barnabas near Salamis and Enkomi, in the occupied north of Cyprus: its...
Ayios Yeorgios at Kalo Chorio (Kapouti): Wall Paintings Stolen and Handed Back in the North
The church of Ayios Yeorgios at Kalo Chorio near Morphou, in the occupied north of Cyprus: what the...
The Munich Seizure of 1997: Church Art from the Occupied North and its Return
The Bavarian police seizure of October and November 1997 in Munich, the purchases that preceded it,...
The Dutch Icons: Four Apostles from Antiphonitis and the Netherlands Courts
Four sixteenth-century icons of the apostles from the iconostasis of Christ Antiphonitis, in the...
Antiquities
Northern Types with Lawful Histories: Vounous, Lapithos, Enkomi and Salamis Material Abroad
How pottery, terracottas and tomb groups from sites now in the occupied north of Cyprus left the...
Opportunist Raids in the Occupied North, 1974 to 1977
The first years after the Turkish invasion of 1974 in the occupied north of Cyprus: abandoned...
Organised Looting in the Occupied North, 1977 to 1982
The organised removals from the occupied north of Cyprus between 1977 and 1982: what the Council of...
The Decline after 1997: the End of the Northern Network and the Cases That Followed
What happened to the looting of the occupied north of Cyprus after the Munich seizure of 1997: the...
Turkish Cypriot Accounts of Looting in the Occupied North
What Turkish Cypriot journalists, officials, archaeologists and deputies themselves recorded about...
The Hadjiprodromou Collection: A Registered Famagusta Collection Looted after 1974
How the Hadjiprodromou collection of Famagusta was formed between 1963 and 1973, registered by the...
The Morphou Mayor's Shop: The Hadjiloizides Collection and the Seizures of 1975
How antiquities marked with the initials and numbers of the Hadjiloizides collection of Morphou...
The Ankara Airport Seizure of 1981: Three Chests from the Occupied North
On 16 March 1981 three chests sent from Tymbou airport in the occupied north of Cyprus to an...
Museums and Excavation Stores in the Occupied North: What They Held in 1974 and What Is Known of Their Fate
The Department of Antiquities' museums and excavation stores in the north of Cyprus at the Turkish...