Since 1974, many artefacts from Cypriot churches have appeared in auctions & private collections around the world. The Church of Cyprus is now increasing their efforts to secure the return of many of these items however.

From:
London Daily News

20 November, 2010 12:49 (GMT +00:00)
“Indiana Jones” search for stolen Cypriot icons across Europe
International News Desk

The Church of Cyprus has increased its efforts to search and repatriate stolen icons from the Mediterranean island with international observers describing the campaign as something resembling an “Indiana Jones” pursuit.

The Church of Cyprus has escalated its efforts across Europe to repatriate stolen byzantine artefacts from the northern third of the island which has been illegally occupied by the Turkish army since invasion of July 1974. It has long been the case that the Turkish troops and settlers have been selling important icons or religious artefacts to the open market, prompting the Church of Cyprus to start a campaign to find and repatriate them. This strategic goal among others has been undertaken by the Representation of the Church of Cyprus to the European Institutions, based in Brussels.
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The New Acropolis Museum is one of the most high profile cultural projects in Europe in the last decade. The British Museum still claims that its existence does not change anything though in the argument for the reunification of the Elgin Marbles.

From:
London Daily News

09 July, 2009 18:30 (GMT +01:00)
Why It’s Time We Lost ‘Our’ Marbles
By Gemma Brosnan

It has been described as one of the most high profile cultural projects undertaken in Europe this decade, costing over €120m after 33 years of planning.

Designed by Swiss-born/New York based architect, Bernard Tschumi and his Greek associate, Michael Photiadis, The New Acropolis museum opened in Athens last month to much fanfare, presenting a spectacular modern building boasting 226,000 square feet of glass, 150,000 square feet of display space spanning five floors and 4,000 artifacts.
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Richard Dorment’s article in the Daily Telegraph unsurprisingly provoked many angry responses on the newspaper’s comments page. Not least, were the claims that the sculptures have been, & would continue to be, better displayed & looked after in the British Museum than in the New Acropolis Museum.

From:
London Daily News

01 July, 2009 12:03 (GMT +01:00)
“Greeks should build a statue to Lord Elgin in Athens”, Telegraph editorial
International News

In what is becoming an increasingly protracted debate, the issue of the reunification of the stolen marbles of the Parthenon took a new dynamic with a highly provocative editorial by Richard Dorment the arts editor of the Daily Telegraph calling for the Greeks to “erect a statue of Lord Elgin near the Parthenon to express their nation’s gratitude to him for saving the marbles”.

Ironically an extensive report published in 1999 by world archeological experts found that the “Elgin marbles” morphology had suffered as a result of the “misguided efforts to make them whiter than white”. The report went onto to say :
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