THE COURT of appeals in Munich ruled on Monday that part of the stolen religious artefacts found in the possession of Turkish man, Aydin Dikmen in 1997 in Munich, should be returned to Cyprus.
German police moved in on Dikmen after they received help from former Archbishop Chrysostomos I, Tasoula Hadjitofi, Cypriot police and art-dealer Michel Van Rijn.
Despite the fact that the decision is positive for Cyprus, a large amount of stolen artefacts have remained with Munich Police since 1997 and it is unknown yet when or if they will ever be returned.
There were a total of 422 different artefacts found in Dikmen’s possession including mosaics, paintings, icons and manuscripts according to the catalogue given to German authorities by Byzantine expert, Athanasios Georgiou.
The artefacts came from 51 different churches in occupied Cyprus. German authorities appointed a German Byzantine expert, Johannes Deckers to study Georgiou’s catalogue and he ascertained that at least half of the list was undoubtedly from Cyprus.
The decision by the appeal court on Monday concerned the artefacts that Deckers confirmed were Cypriot. The court said that it considered it possible to issue a partial decision which would cover those items only.
On September 23, 2010, after a 13-year judicial battle, a Munich court ruled that the Cypriot artefacts found in Dikmen’s possession should be returned to the island. In November of the same year, Dikmen appealed the court’s decision and after various time-consuming legal procedures, problems and postponements the court ruled the items should be returned. Despite the ruling the case is not closed as other experts will need to be summoned by the court to ascertain the origin of the rest of Dikmen’s loot.
Hadjitofi expressed her satisfaction that the truth had finally come out, vindicating her long battle for the truth and the return of the Cypriot artefacts.
“The most important thing for me and all of those that believe in the foundation ‘Walk of Truth’ is that what we have won is more important than those items that have remained in Germany,” she said. “The decision by the German judicial system is symbolic and at the same time it will prompt every civilised person to fight for their cultural heritage,” she added. Hadjitofi concluded that ‘Walk of Truth’ would continue its fight as there were many artefacts that had been stolen from the occupied areas that were still abroad.
Hadjitofi was nominated as the Cypriot representative for the "Woman of Europe" Award organised by the International Association for the Promotion of Women of Europe (AIPFE) for her achievements in combating illicit art trafficking in Europe and beyond.
Since 1988, Hadjitofi has traced and retrieved sixty pieces of stolen artefacts of significant historical and cultural value from Cyprus. Although her work had its origins in Cyprus, the tracing and retrieval of stolen artefacts transcended national borders and took on European dimensions and beyond. Her work has required the cooperation of various governmental authorities, Europol and Interpol as well as German, Cypriot and Greek police authorities. These concentrated efforts raised media interest which precipitated the collapse of open art trafficking.
Walk of Truth is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organisation.
It was established in recognition of the need to protect cultural heritage and to provide an independent platform for respectful, constructive dialogue between people living in conflict-ridden environments.
