Aydın Dikmen (born October 15, 1937 – April 8, 2020) is a Turkish

art dealer An art dealer is a person or company that buys and sells works of art, or acts as the intermediary between the buyers and sellers of art. An art dealer in contemporary art typically seeks out various artists to represent, and builds relationshi ...

who was arrested in 1998 for trying to sell

Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism. Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or "canonical") ...

art that had been looted from

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...

during the 1974 invasion. During the Turkish invasion of northern Cyprus in 1974, some of the churches and monasteries in the area were

looted Looting is the act of stealing, or the taking of goods by force, typically in the midst of a military, political, or other social crisis, such as war, natural disasters (where law and civil enforcement are temporarily ineffective), or rioting. ...

for art treasures. Greek Cypriot authorities now suspect that Dikmen had a major part of stripping the churches of their treasures or at least selling them. Dikmen sold thirteenth-century

fresco Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaste ...

es from the St. Evphemianos church near

Lysi Lysi ( gr, Λύση, tr, Akdoğan or ) is a village located in the Mesaoria plain in Cyprus, north of the city of Larnaca. It is under the ''de facto'' control of Northern Cyprus. Lysi is also the administration center for the villages of Beyar ...

to the Menil Foundation in

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

in 1984. The Cypriot church approved the deal providing that the frescoes would be returned to Cyprus eventually. In 1988 Dikmen, Dutch art dealer Michel van Rijn and associate Robert Fitzgerald sold four Kanakaria church mosaics to US dealer

Peg Goldberg PEG or peg may refer to: Devices * Clothes peg, a fastener used to hang up clothes for drying * Tent peg, a spike driven into the ground for holding a tent to the ground * Tuning peg, used to hold a string in the pegbox of a stringed instrume ...

for $1 million. When she tried to sell them to the

J. Paul Getty Museum The J. Paul Getty Museum, commonly referred to as the Getty, is an art museum in Los Angeles, California housed on two campuses: the Getty Center and Getty Villa. The Getty Center is located in the Brentwood, Los Angeles, Brentwood neighborhood ...

in California, the museum curator contacted Greek Cypriot authorities. After a 1989 trial a federal court in

Indianapolis Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...

ordered them to be returned to the Greek Orthodox Church in Cyprus. They currently reside in the Byzantine Museum in Cyprus. In March 1998, after an 8-month

sting operation In law enforcement, a sting operation is a deceptive operation designed to catch a person attempting to commit a crime. A typical sting will have an undercover law enforcement officer, detective, or co-operative member of the public play a role a ...

initiated by

Tasoula Hadjitofi Tasoula Georgiou Hadjitofi (Modern Greek, Greek: Τασούλα Γεωργίου Χατζητοφή) was born in 1959 in Cyprus and lives in the Netherlands. She is an author, a cultural activist and an entrepreneur. Combating art trafficking Ha ...

, Honorary Consul of Cyprus in The Netherlands,

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

police recovered more treasures from apartments Dikmen had rented with a false names. Dikmen was arrested after he was videotaped when he tried to sell the treasures. Michel van Rijn cooperated with the police but later refused to testify against Dikmen after he had received death threats. The returned loot included 30 frescoes from

Antifonitis Antiphonitis -- more correctly the Church of Christ Antiphonitis (Χριστός Ἀντιφωνητής) -- is a domed church in Cyprus, in Kyrenia District, located in the mountains near the village of Kalograia. It is reached from the net ...

monastery, a mosaic from Kanakaria church and a number of icons. They were taken to the

Bavarian National Museum The Bavarian National Museum (german: Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, links=no) in Munich is one of the most important museums of decorative arts in Europe and one of the list of largest art museums in the world , largest art museums in Germany. S ...

for safekeeping before being returned to Cyprus.

References

External links

*http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/cyprus/index.html Mark Rose, April 20, 1998 *http://www.archaeology.org/9807/etc/special.html Mark Rose, July/August 1998 {{DEFAULTSORT:Dikmen, Aydin Art thieves Living people Turkish criminals 1937 births