The Republic after 1974
After the Turkish invasion of 1974 the Department of Antiquities kept control of the sites, museums and stores of the south of the island. Illicit digging went on there, as it had before, mostly by single finders with a spade or a metal detector near known sites, and above all in Paphos district. It was reported to the police and prosecuted. Through the same years the lawful trade continued under licence until 1996, and the private collections formed on the island passed one by one into public foundations and museums. The entries in this part of the section set the two side by side.
How to use these entries
The entries are in two groups. Illicit digging and policing covers chance finds and opportunistic digging, the few organised cases, and how the police and the Department of Antiquities pursue illicit finds at home and Cypriot objects offered for sale abroad. The lawful trade after 1974 covers licensed export from the invasion to the amendment of 1996, and the private collections that became public museums.
The years before the invasion, when the same collections were formed and registered, are covered in digging and the lawful trade before 1974, and the law in sequence in the legal export of Cypriot antiquities. The occupied north, where the looting after 1974 was of a different order, is covered in the occupied north after 1974. For what an undocumented object is worth, and who takes the money, see the economics of looting.
Illicit digging and policing
Chance Finds and Opportunistic Digging in the Republic of Cyprus after 1974
Illicit digging and chance finds in the Republic-controlled south of Cyprus after the Turkish...
Organised Cases in the South: Souskiou, the Limassol Ring of 2010, Peyia and Operation Pandora
The organised and semi-organised cases of illicit digging and dealing in the Republic-controlled...
Policing and Monitoring: How the Republic of Cyprus Polices Antiquities and Watches the Market Abroad
How the Republic of Cyprus has policed illicit digging and trafficking since 1974: the police...
The lawful trade after 1974
Licensed Export from the Republic of Cyprus, 1974 to 1996
The lawful trade in antiquities in the Republic of Cyprus from the Turkish invasion to the 1996...
Collections That Became Museums: Private Collections on Cyprus and Their Public Homes after 1974
How the private collections of antiquities formed on Cyprus passed into public hands after the...