Looting of Cyprus
Following the invasion of Cyprus in 1974 by Turkey and the occupation of the northern part of the island, churches belonging to the Cypriot Orthodox Church have been looted in what is described as “one of the most systematic examples of the looting of art since World War II”.[15][16]
Several-high-profile cases have made headline news on the international scene. Most notable was the case of the Kanakaria mosaics, 6th-century AD frescos that were removed from the original church, trafficked to the US and offered for sale to a museum for the sum of US$20,000,000.[17] These were subsequently recovered by the Orthodox Church following a court case in Indianapolis.[18]
The northern part of the island is where the church and art looting was concentrated.[19] It is rumored that the Turkish-Cypriot leaders did not feel an obligation to preserve the artifacts and monuments in the north because they felt that the Greek-Cypriot government had oppressed them for too long.[16]
Archaeological sites, museums, churches, monasteries, castles, libraries, and private art collections have all been affected by the looting of the northern area of Cyprus; icons, frescoes, archaeological artifacts, and cultural heritage have been stripped from areas around the island and have been taken to places all over the world or simply destroyed.[20] Some believe that this has been done to ‘Turkify’ the northern region of the country and erase the characteristics of the Cypriot predecessors, while people like Aydin Dikmen have been working to make money off of cultural heritage artifacts by selling them in international markets
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Looted_art#Looting_of_Cyprus
Thank you for that post!