World Notes CYPRUS

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.