`I joined the other side in 1988", Dutch art dealer turned crusader Michael Van Rijn told The Irish Times, in an exclusive international telephone interview arranged by the Greek Cypriot police to ensure his security.
The case which made him switch from selling to recovering stolen art involved the four Kanakaria mosaics offered for sale to the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. The mosaics of Jesus and the 12 apostles "depict one of the first images of Christ", he said, and as such are "historic [for they are] survivors of iconoclasm" when many early representations were destroyed. These mosaics are as "important as those in Ravenna", he added; they exist today only because they were "on an island in an isolated place. Half the Christ child is in Cyprus and the other half is in Holland. It will be returned," he asserted, confidently.
The Kanakaria mosaic case "changed every- thing", Mr Van Rijn, stated. It exposed the trade in stolen art, particularly in looted Cypriot artifacts and antiquities. "It is not possible to do in the '90s what was done in the '70s." He said that reputable dealers and auction houses no longer want to handle Cypriot pieces; and prosperous professionals, the majority of buyers, "do not feel comfortable holding stolen pieces - not all collectors are crooks". He made the point, however, that "getting a Cypriot icon of St Peter out of the British Museum" was going to be a long drawn out affair because the curators were "arrogant and snobbish and closed as an oyster. For, once they give in on one piece they will have to give in on others without clear provenance."
Involvement in the Kanakaria mosaic affair made him realise that the Turkish occupation of northern Cyprus was responsible for the spate of icons, church frescoes, antiquities and other valuable items flowing into the art market after 1974, many of the pieces being sold as Greek rather than Cypriot.
From that time until last March Mr Van Rijn had covert contacts with Ms Tasoula Georghiou-Hajitofi, providing her with information which led to the return or location of a number of important pieces.
"It took me a long time to decide to go on record" and become "the person channelling back most of the works of art." Mr Van Rijn had no choice but to emerge from undercover in order to put an end to the spectacular career of his former partner, Mr Aydin Dikmen, the Turkish dealer who stripped northern Cyprus of its heritage. "I am going to testify against him in court."
In an ironic twist to the tale, Mr Van Rijn has been asked by the Turkish Cypriots to assist in the retrieval of a stolen collection of Turkish coins now residing in a museum in the US.