| The Washington Post
Wednesday, August 9, 1989 Cyprus gets Mosaics Associated press INDIANAPOLIS, Aug. 8 – A priest blessed four 6th-century mosaics today after the Greek Orthodox Church of Cyprus regained possession of the rare artworks in an agreement with an art dealer. “Today is a great day for Cyprus”, said Michael Kyprianou, senior counsel for the Republic of Cyprus. “Fifteen years of hard work in securing our artefacts, our cultural heritage have not been wasted.” U.S. District Judge James E. Noland ruled Thursday that art dealer Peg Goldberg of suburban Carmel had not obtained legal title to the mosaics she bought for $1.2 million last summer in Switzerland from Aydin Dikmen, a Turk living in West Germany. The Republic of Cyprus and the church sued Goldberg last spring to recover the works, which had been stripped from a church in Turkish-occupied Cyprus in the late 1970s. Noland ordered the mosaics returned to the Cypriots, but attorneys for both sides agreed today the works would remain in an Indianapolis vault pending appeals. “We are pleased by the agreement this morning for protection of the mosaics during the appeals process”, Goldberg said. ”We very strongly intend to appeal. I just simply totally disagree with the decision.” The Rev. James Rousakis, pastor of Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Indianapolis, prayed and sang in Greek over the Byzantine works, which lay on the floor of the basement vault. He sprinkled them with holy water, then he and Kyprianou knelt to kiss each one. “In the Orthodox faith, the mosaics are sacred, a consecrated form of art that is part and parcel of our worship service. Once they are removed, it’s almost as if they’re stained or tainted. They have to be restored,” Rousakis said. He prayed for forgiveness for Goldberg and those who took the mosaics from the church and smuggled them out of the Mediterranean island nation. “We have learned to forgive people,” Kyprianou said. “What we wanted are our mosaics back.” The mosaics, pieced together with painted glass about A.D. 525, are fragments of a much larger work on the ceiling of a church in northern Cyprus. The images of Jesus as a boy, the apostles James and Matthew and archangel are among only a nadful of icons surviving the first centuries of Christianity. “It is one of the most touching moments of my life knowing that these beautiful mosaics, which we were victims of vandalism on the part of Turkish occupation forces, are now back in the hands of their legitimate owner,” Kyprianou said. Under today’s agreement, Cyprus controls the keys to the vault but will not move the mosaics or restore them during the appeals process unless Goldberg agrees. The agreement also allows Cyprus to pursue claims against Goldberg for any damages that occurred during their transportation to the United States or during restoration by an Indianapolis museum worker. “The work of the so-called restoration they have done on it is, to say at least, amateur,” Kyprianou said. “They have ruined the most magnificent pieces of our religious life.” A Cypriot expert on Byzantine mosaics is expected to examine the fragments to determine the extent of the damage, Kyprianou said. Attorneys for Cyprus said they also were considering filing damage claims against others, whom they declined to identify. | 
