Goal for 2025 is updating Interpol database on stolen Cypriot antiquities, Deputy Minister says

The goal for 2025 is updating the Interpol database as regards Cypriot antiquities which have been lost abroad, with information on private collections that were in the occupied territories until 1974 and have since been lost, Deputy Minister of Culture Vasiliki Kassianidou has said.

The Department of Antiquities has been digitising its archives with funding from Switzerland and Norway, she noted.

Responding to a question whether the repatriation of antiquities that had been recently announced has been completed, Kassianidou told the Cyprus News Agency (CNA) that the antiquities from London and Los Angeles have already been repatriated, while the ones that are at Cyprus’ embassy in Vienna will also be gradually returned.

Asked whether the repatriation of other antiquities was expected within 2025, the Deputy Minister said that there was nothing specific to announce but noted that the Department of Antiquities and the Committee for the prevention of illicit trade and trafficking of antiquities, continue their work on this matter. Officials of the Department of Antiquities and the Police monitor the auctions, she added, noting that, as soon as they identify a Cypriot antiquity, they begin the process for investigating its provenance and whether it has been illegally removed from Cyprus.

The goal for 2025, Kassianidou said, is to continue updating the Interpol database for lost antiquities with information on private collections that were in the occupied territories until 1974 and have since been lost. She said that, for some years now, the Department of Antiquities has been digitising its archives with funding from Switzerland and Norway.

“Since we have digitised the private collections” she said, this information can now be added to the Interpol database “so that we can claim them more easily if any of these items appear on the market”.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third. Since the 1974 Turkish invasion, hundreds of valuable artefacts have been stolen from the northern Turkish occupied areas of the island and found their way into the black market overseas.

(Source: CNA)