Ancient coins return to Cyprus

By Tania Khadder

IT SEEMS Aphrodite is not the only Cypriot treasure returning to Cyprus this during this year’s Italian Month. The Italian Minister of Education and Culture, Giuliano Urbani, is to hand over 161 stolen ancient Cypriot coins to Minister of Communication and Works, Kikis Kazamias, in a ceremony tomorrow afternoon at the Cyprus Museum.

Very little is known as regards how and when they were smuggled out of Cyprus but the coins have been dated to the fourth century BC and are thought to be from the ancient southwestern coastal city of Amathus. They are silver and show a lion’s head on one side and various symbols and letters on the other.

The Department of Antiquities director Sophocles Hadjisavvas said that Cyprus has very few coins from this place and time, making the latest repossession “so important”.

He added that the return of the coins would be a “respectable demonstration of solidarity between two countries who suffer the problem of illegal trafficking of stolen antiquities”.

“It is very important that the Minister of Culture will deliver them in person. It shows that the government of Italy appreciates the relationship between the two countries, otherwise they could have just sent them through Interpol.”

While the return of the coins is not technically part of Italian Cultural Month in Cyprus, which will also bring an exhibition of twenty-three Italian masterpieces featuring the ancient Goddess Aphrodite as their main theme, Hadjisavvas said that the timing is a “happy coincidence.”

When the Cyprus Antiquities Department noticed the coins being sold on the internet last year from a location in Italy, they called Interpol in Rome. In June 2002, police in San Merino seized around 10,000 coins, including the Cypriot coins, from a woman who was selling them over the Internet. Further investigation into the suspect company’s accounts uncovered a criminal organisation that had made millions of euros selling stolen antiquities in Italy and abroad.

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