Stolen icon to be returned from Switzerland

ANOTHER icon stolen from Antifonitis church in the occupied area is expected back on the island soon.

The icon, currently in the possession of a Swiss art collector, depicts the apostle Mark. In a letter to the

Cyprus embassy in Switzerland, the collector said that after the arrest of Turk Aydin Dikmen last year, he no longer wants to keep the icon. It will be returned to the church free of charge.

Of the icons and frescoes plundered from the church, 34 are now in the Nicosia Byzantine Museum after being bought back by the church last October as part of the sting operation which lead to the arrest of Dikmen, who was found to have 350 stolen religious treasures in his possession. The items had been secreted behind false walls in his Munich apartment building.

After a court battle, the church failed to recover four more icons depicting the apostles from a Rotterdam collector, but is appealing against the ruling. Another icon, featuring the Virgin Mary, was returned last September.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.