Germany returns looted Cyprus artifacts seized in Munich

MUNICH, Germany, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Germany on Tuesday handed over frescoes, mosaics, icons and other artifacts looted from northern Cyprus to Cyprus government.

Bavarian Justice Minister Beate Merk handed the artworks seized by police in Munich more than 15 years ago to representatives from Cyprus on Tuesday afternoon.

The cultural goods were discovered in the apartment of a Turkish art dealer in Munich in 1997, and they have been put in a room of the State Office of Criminal Investigation since then.

After years of legal wrangling, a Munich court determined in March that some of the seized artworks, whose value has been put at double digit millions, were looted at the time of the Turkish invation in 1974.

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