News
Looting, trafficking, seizures and returns of Cypriot antiquities.
Heritage crime·Brief
The Evangelists Matthew and Mark, taken from the Metropolis palace in Kyrenia, were traced to the UK and handed back to the Church without payment.
Source: Holy Metropolis of Morphou: press release, 9 October 2026
Heritage crime·Roundup
A Late Bronze Age juglet withdrawn from a British online sale is handed back to Cyprus, and the Department of Antiquities lists its stolen antiquities in UNESCO's Virtual Museum.
Source: Deputy Ministry of Culture: Repatriation of a Cypriot antiquity from the United Kingdom, 1 July 2026
Heritage crime·Brief
The objects came back in eight handovers in France, Britain, the United States and Canada between December 2025 and June 2026, six of them after auction houses withdrew the lots.
Source: Department of Antiquities: Repatriation of a Cypriot antiquity from the Republic of France
Heritage crime·Roundup
A clay four-horse chariot of about 600 BCE, found in a French online sale, is returned to Cyprus, and a French mission ends its season on the walls of Nea Paphos.
Source: Department of Antiquities, Cyprus: Repatriation of a Cypriot antiquity from the Republic of France
Heritage crime·Roundup
A Black Polished bowl of about 1900 BCE, spotted in an online auction in May 2025, was handed to the Cyprus High Commission in Ottawa after a year of police and justice work.
Source: Department of Antiquities: Repatriation of a Cypriot antiquity from Canada
Heritage crime·Brief
Pottery and limestone figurines from the Early Bronze Age to the medieval period, given up by the heirs of Christos Zacharakis, were handed over at the Cyprus Museum on 1 June.
Source: Deputy Ministry of Culture: Repatriation of 48 Cypriot antiquities from the Hellenic Republic
Heritage crime·Roundup
A Cypro-Archaic jug pulled from a UK online sale comes home, UNESCO posters at Larnaca and Paphos airports warn travellers, and MPs tour the new museum site in Nicosia.
Source: Department of Antiquities: Repatriation of a Cypriot Antiquity from the United Kingdom
Heritage crime·Roundup
A Cypro-Geometric drinking cup comes home from a French online auction, and the bicommunal heritage committee counts over 180 sites worked on since 2008.
Source: Department of Antiquities: Repatriation of a Cypriot antiquity from France
