[MSN] Antiquities of Cyprus, Victims of Invasion

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Antiquities of Cyprus, Victims of Invasion
Posted on Monday, May 22 @ 21:42:49 EDT by greek_news 
 

 New York.- By Vicki J. Yiannias
The Mediterranean's first wine was made in Cyprus 5,500 years ago, predating
winemaking in Greece by 1,500 years; perfume was manufactured and exported
4,000 years ago, but the antiquities of the 12,000 years of history, so
extensive that this ancient island should be regarded as "one huge monument"
* have been savaged: since the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus, sixteen
thousand icons, mosaics and frescoes, and 60,000 ancient artifacts have been
brutally torn from their contexts, smuggled, hoarded by dealers, consigned
for sale to auction houses, and sold to museums and private collectors.

Tragically, the looters not only diminished the value of the artefacts while
attempting to remove them, and by removing them from their historical and
geographical context, but also destroyed the sites they plundered, said
Michael Jansen in her lecture War and Cultural Heritage, presented on May 18
at the Onassis Foundation, presented in collaboration with the International
Press Organization. 
Cultural property, she said, is a non-renewal resource; archaeologists and
historians learn a great deal about our development and history as long as
sites are left undisturbed. "Artefacts have voices which tell our story if
they are left onsite; in the homes of the wealthy and in museums, they are
dumb objects sitting on shelves and languishing in glass cases. Once they
tell our story, they can be sent into the world and put on display." 

Mrs. Jansen has followed the issue of the fate of cultural heritage in times
of war for thirty years and reported on this issue and the illegal trade of
antiquities for Archaeology magazine for the last twenty years. "Unless
scholars are able to continue to search out our past and build on the grand
narrative of human development and civilization, humankind as a whole is
impoverished; the fabric of our historical narrative becomes filled with
holes," said Mrs. Jansen, "We are diminished. Loss in one country or part of
the world is a loss for global civilization. Although tomb robbing is said
to be the second oldest profession, looting is a crime against civilization,
a crime against humanity." 

Mrs. Jansen was introduced by Dr. Mark Rose, executive editor of Archaology
magazine, who spoke about the plundering of archaeological sites and
museums, and destruction of cultural and religious monuments in countries
devastated by war, also mentioning a listing change regarding the return of
antiquities to their originating countries. 

Mrs. Jansen discussed her 2005 book, War and Cultural Heritage: Cyprus after
the 1974 Turkish Invasion, which tells the story of ethnic cleansing, the
expulsion of the Greek Cypriot majority, and pillage, the theft of the
island's rich cultural heritage, that began as soon as Turkish soldiers
stormed ashore on July 20th, 1974. with the specifics of the brutal
destruction and illicit marketing of the island's historical, cultural,
architectural and religious heritage. 

"Looting generally accompanies warfare and unrest in countries with rich
heritages, she said, "but the case of Cyprus is particularly dramatic
because it is confined to a small, well defined geographical area, said
Jansen, a resident of Nicosia, Cyprus, since 1976 Mrs. Jansen, who describes
the south as "a land of plenty", and the north as a "wasteland." said that
while little excavation and study of antiquities is being done in the north,
archaeologists working in the south are making fresh discoveries all the
time. "In the Turkish occupied north, both Christian and ancient sites have
been mercilessly plundered and scholarly investigation has been disrupted.
Meanwhile in the government-controlled south, sites have been largely
preserved and scholars have been at work uncovering the distant past,
Scholarship in the north remains frozen while it moves forward in the
south." 

Mrs. Jansen discussed the three phase of the invasion of the island.
First,158,000 Greek Cypriots fled, while archaeological sites, museums,
churches, monasteries, castles, libraries and private collections were
robbed and vandalized, sometimes at random by rampaging soldiers and
sometimes by professional art and antiquities thieves belonging to a
well-organized network on the island. 

During the second phase, 2,000 of the remaining 4,000 Greek Cypriots were
forced to leave as Turkish Cypriot smugglers systematically targeted
specific treasures, which, said mrs. Jansen, were shipped them to "the
leading wholesaler of Cypriot loot, Aydin Dikmen in Munich. Dikmen, who
began his career in Turkey hawking illegal finds and forging artefacts
became a ship-breaker and major player in hot art mafias." 

The third phase is ongoing: 500 Greek Cypriots have clung to their homes in
the Karpass Peninsula and looting has continued from unexplored sites while
the cultural heritage of the north is also being depleted by illegal
excavations, dissolution by neglect and destruction by developers. 

A film "Cyprus : The perishing heritage" (production of Cyprus Press and
Information Office) shown before the lecture. A comprehensive survey
conducted by Greek and Turkish Cypriot architects and engineer revealed that
while a majority of mosques in the south are in fair to good repair, most
churches and monasteries in the north -- some considered to be major world
heritage sites because of their irreplaceable mosaics -- were looted of
icons, brutally stripped of wall paintings and mosaics by Romanian
technicians trained by the mainland Turkish smuggler and dealer Aydin
Dikmen. Churches and monasteries were also desecrated, being used as toilets
and to house animals. 

There are three levels of operatives engaged in the illegal art trade, said
Mrs. Jansen, tomb robbers who harvest the crop, receivers or middle men, and
customers. Tomb robbers and customers are many, but middle men - wholesalers
and primary dealers - are few and are closely connected. The authorities and
police forces and customers know who looters, dealers and buyers are but
rarely take action against them. Sentences are light for those who are
caught and tried. But the police in some countries are becoming more active.


Trade in stolen art and antiquities is said to be $5-6 billion a year, with
Istanbul, Munich, Zurich and London, being the hubs, and artefacts flowing
along routes used by drugs and arms smugglers who often buy looted art to
launder their profits from their other enterprises. As well, terrorist
groups in Iraq are selling antiquities to finance their operations. 

The climate of opinion is changing, however, since the late eighties, around
the time the Indianapolis court decided to send the Kanakaria mosaics home
to Cyprus when the presiding judge took the view that the dealer had no
right to stolen property even though he claimed the buyer had bought them
mosaics in "good faith." 

While individual Turkish Cypriots have long been aware that the heritage of
the island belongs to them as well as to Greek Cypriots and are trying to
rescue it, the Turkish Cypriot and mainland Turkish authorities have done
little to preserve Christian and archaeological sites, said Mrs. Jansen. "A
belated effort has been made to repair and maintain major archaeological
sites in order to attract tourism." She also noted that some Turkish Cypriot
and Turkish journalists did their best to halt the looting by publicizing
it. "Turkish Cypriot poet Mehmet Yasin and mainland Turkish journalist Ozgen
Acar of Cumhurriet, in particular, campaigned against pillaging." 

Cyprus is not the only victim of pillage. Cambodia, India, the Balkans,
Lebanon, Turkey, Egypt, and the countries of Africa, Eastern Europe and
Latin America have been subjected to looting, and purchasers of artifacts
cannot continue to abide by the maxim, "Don't ask too many questions," said
Mrs. Jansen. Leading museums and collectors in the US are facing serious
moral pressure and prosecution over "hot artefacts" in their collections. 

Among the distinguished guests who attended were: Susan Adams - Director of
Foreign Press Association, Alan Capper -President of Foreign Press
Association, Ambassador Andreas Mavroyiannis -Cyprus Mission to the UN, The
Honorable Martha Mavromati- Counsul General of Cyprus, Andreas
Hadjichrysanthou- Deputy Permanent Representative of Cyprus to the UN, Eleni
Avgousti-Cyprus Mission to the UN, George Alexopoulos- Consul of Greece,
Demetrios Boutris- Former Trade Commissioner of California, Peter
Papanicolaou- philanthropist, other members of the Foreign Press and
numerous scholars. 

A documentation of 505 Christian and 115 Muslim sites with photographs and
descriptions can be found on the website: www.cyprustemples.com. 
 
http://www.greeknewsonline.com/