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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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081489
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08148900.019
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1990-09-17
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WORLD, Page 42World NotesCYPRUSHanding Back The Loot
Last month a federal judge in Indianapolis listened to
arguments over whether four 6th century mosaics bought in
Switzerland by an American art dealer had actually been stolen from
Cyprus after the island was invaded by Turkish soldiers in 1974.
Last week Judge James E. Noland announced his decision: the
Byzantine religious works that suburban Indianapolis art dealer Peg
Goldberg purchased for $1.2 million last year and tried to sell to
the Getty Museum in California, are legally the property of the
Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Cyprus and must be returned.
Noland accepted the argument of the church and the Greek
Cypriot government that the works had been stripped from a small
village church on the Turkish-controlled side of the island and
illegally offered for sale on the international art market. Said
Archbishop Chrysostomos of the Cyprus Church: "This just decision
by the American court will help end the illegal marketing of looted
archaeological items worldwide." Museum directors expect the
decision to set an important precedent for regulating the
antiquities market.