The Icon Hunter by Tasoula Georgiou Hadjitofi

Author:Tasoula Georgiou Hadjitofi
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Published: 2017-08-31T04:00:00+00:00

Cyprus and the repatriation efforts of the Church have become big news in the Netherlands thanks to Jan Fred. My work on the Lans case and on the recovery of the icon of archangel Michael draws dozens of interview requests from media outlets from around the world. The favorable publicity places the issue of art trafficking and the importance of protecting Cypriot cultural heritage center stage. I forward copies of these articles from around the world to the MFA, in the hope that they will be pleased to see how the icons have become ambassadors for Cyprus. The archbishop and Polak advise me what to say and not say when discussing open cases. Having access to someone of Polak’s legal caliber is a godsend. He coaches me on the legal side of repatriation, which enables me to advocate the issues to the politicians and media with confidence and ease.

On August 4, Polak forwards correspondence from the attorney representing the Lans couple. I can feel the blood drain from my face as I read that the four apostle icons that we just confiscated from the Lanses had been exhibited from December 1976 to January 1977 at the Museum Prinsenhof in Delft. The exhibit was organized by none other than Michel Van Rijn and Edouard Dergazarian.16

Here we go again! I am drawn into another one of Van Rijn’s mind games, there is always an ulterior motive with him. First, he took advantage of the doctor, taking money by using his association with the Cypriot government to scare the family. Now he has withheld valuable information regarding his involvement in the Lans case and his partnership with Dergazarian.

Every move that Van Rijn makes must be scrutinized. There is too much at stake to make the slightest error.

According to Polak, the challenges we face in the Lans civil case have to do with the twenty-year statute of limitations. Since the icons were confiscated in 1995 and twenty-one years have passed since the 1974 invasion, we are at a critical point in determining if the statute of limitations is applicable. The burden of proof is on the Church, which must demonstrate that the Lanses purchased the icons less than twenty years ago and that they purchased them suspecting that they were stolen, in order to prove bad faith.

Polak brings up the possibility of invoking “The Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict” in order to spare the Church having to go through the uncertainty of a civil case. The Hague Convention, as it is known, was adopted in 1954 in response to the enormous destruction of cultural heritage that occurred during the Second World War. It is the first international treaty to attempt to secure worldwide cooperation for the protection of cultural heritage in the case of armed conflict and has been ratified by 127 countries. This international treaty and its protocols have never before been invoked.

“In times of war,” Polak says, “there is an obligation to uphold the

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