The Icon Hunter

by Tasoula Georgiou Hadjitofi

Overview

Tasoula Hadjitofi was only a child when her homeland, Cyprus, was invaded. As bombs fell and soldiers marched through the streets, her mother stood guard, reminding her children to not be afraid—not of the bombs or anything else that may follow. They would always have their family and their faith. Soon thereafter, Tasoula found herself homeless and nation-less. A refugee. Decades later, she's a successful entrepreneur and the honorary Cypriot consul to The Netherlands. But family and faith remained her touchstones—and she never lost her longing for "home." She often thought of the gorgeous Cypriot churches and their icons. One day, an art dealer offers her a chance to buy Cyprian icons stolen during the war. Icons hold a special place in the hearts of many Greek Cypriots. They are not just masterpieces—they are artistic manifestations of faith and a gateway to the divine.Outraged, Tasoula sets out on a quest to repatriate these artifacts. An immensely difficult task as icons often lack provenance in the eyes of the law. But she is determined. Yet the road to “The Munich Case”—the largest art trafficking sting in European history—is filled with mind games, subterfuge, global politics, and a shady figure named Van Rinj, whose motives are never entirely clear...

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781681773810
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	04/11/2017
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	229,148
File size:	38 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Tasoula Hadjitofi was born in Famagusta, Cyprus. In 1974, she and her family were forced to flee their home due to the Turkish invasion of Cyprus and the outbreak of war. Tasoula has served as the Honorary Consul of Cyprus in The Netherlands and while holding this office she spent more than two decades recovering the stolen cultural and religious heritage of her homeland. Her efforts culminated in the 1997 “Munich Case,” one of the largest art trafficking sting operations in European history. She is the founder of Walk Of Truth, a non-governmental organization whose mission is to raise awareness about the importance of preserving cultural heritage in conflict areas. She lives in the Netherlands with her family.

Table of Contents

Foreword xi

A Note from the Author xiii

Introduction: Resurrection xv

1 The Set-Up 1

2 Here We Go Again 7

3 The Surprise 23

4 Date With A Devil 42

5 Refugee 50

6 The Dance 59

7 A Sign 73

8 Chasing Truth 84

9 Happy New Year! 89

10 Baptism By Fire 95

11 Life and Death 108

12 What Lies Beneath 123

13 The Birth Of An Icon Hunter 139

14 On My Own 155

15 No Justice 176

16 No Peace 196

17 The Road to Munich 206

18 Not So Funny Business 217

19 In The Name of the Father 224

20 The Return 229

21 Testing … One, Two 240

22 Capturing The Gold 247

23 Lessons Learned 259

24 Power Struggle 268

25 Tactical Warfare 274

26 The Devil Is In The Details 279

27 Return Of The Refugees 287

28 It's Criminal 294

29 Civil Unrest 302

30 Making Peace

31 Dealers of God 336

32 Walk Of Truth 338

33 It Ain't Over 342

Epilogue 343

Endnotes 347

Acknowledgments 357

Editorial Reviews

02/27/2017
In this gripping memoir, Hadjitofi, former Honorary Consul of Cyprus in the Netherlands and founder of the NGO Walk of Truth, chronicles the Munich sting operation that uncovered and repatriated stolen artifacts and icons looted from Cypriot churches during the Turkish occupation of Cyprus in 1974. The sting that led to the “Munich Case” lasted more than two decades. Hadjitofi recounts her quest to locate scattered Byzantine masterpieces that are worth millions; she went all over the world, from a university in Japan to the Munich doorstep of a corrupt art trader. She partnered with Dutch art trader Michel Van Rijn, a corrupt and unreliable informant, who introduced danger along the journey. Hadjitofi felt driven to return the artifacts to the Orthodox Christian churches that represent both her religion and her home. As a former refugee, she reveals the despair and irreparable loss of losing not only a nation but also its cultural heritage. She exposes the “underworld of art traffickers” with intricate detail as she documents all the legal loopholes and battles that stand in the way of repatriating stolen artifacts. The book is a powerful and important chronicle of art trafficking and its impact on the lives of those torn apart by war, and Hadjitofi is a caring and exacting storyteller. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

In a memoir that reads like a high-stakes mystery, Cypriot refugee Tasoula Hadjitofi struggles to find her rightful place in the world and to return the religious treasures of her homeland to theirs. Along the way, her compelling personal tale illustrates the devastating cultural, historic, spiritual and moral consequences of illegal art trafficking.

Nicholas Gage

The Icon Hunter is not only a quest for justice but for spirituality as well. Tasoula Hadjitofi achieves both. She is truly brave and her work is a shining example to us all that a persevering woman is a force to reckon with. In the age of ISIS and the routine destruction of historic sites, art, and artifacts, Tasoula’s work is timely and an inspiration for all who care to preserve the human legacy of art. I simply cannot wait for this story to be turned into a movie. As a book, it is impossible to put down.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Equal parts memoir and detective story. Tasoula Hadjitofi is a proud, intelligent, resourceful, and brave woman who refuses to allow injustice to stand; she is a warrior in the battle to protect the world’s cultural heritage from those who would destroy it or seek to profit from it.

Independent Whig.

Tasoula Hadjitofi's life is the stuff of novels, providing perfect material for her memoir.

The Washington Diplomat

Equal parts memoir and detective story. Tasoula Hadjitofi is a proud, intelligent, resourceful, and brave woman who refuses to allow injustice to stand; she is a warrior in the battle to protect the world’s cultural heritage from those who would destroy it or seek to profit from it.

Independent

03/15/2017
As a child, Hadjitofi was forced to flee her home in the Mediterranean island of Cyprus as a result of the 1974 Turkish invasion. After taking refuge in the Netherlands, the author later became a businesswoman and Honorary Consul of Cyprus. This autobiography focuses on her diplomatic efforts to find and recover treasured religious icons, frescoes, and other valuable artworks which were looted from Orthodox churches after the attack. The author's negotiations with Dutch art dealer and informant Michel van Rijn eventually led to a 1997 police sting operation in Munich, where Turkish art thief Aydin Dikman was caught with a large cache of priceless stolen Cypriot artifacts. While Hadjitofi's deep dedication to recovering the cultural heritage of her homeland is admirable, this recounting is exhaustive in detail and includes long sections of re-created conversations. Hadjitofi fails to condense her labyrinthine discussions with van Rijn into a reasonably readable form, and the larger threads of her potentially compelling narrative are often obscured by a blizzard of extraneous information. VERDICT Best suited to readers interested in Cypriot history, high-end art trafficking, and the daunting challenges of protecting cultural heritage in conflict zones.—Ingrid Levin, Salve Regina Univ. Lib., Newport, RI

Library Journal

2017-02-19
A Greek Cypriot refugee in the Netherlands chronicles her fierce determination to return stolen artifacts to her country through years of dangerous underworld operations.Having fled her hometown of Famagusta, Cyprus, at age 14 with her family when the Turkish military invaded the country in 1974, Hadjitofi relocated to The Hague and became, in her early 20s, a businesswoman and honorary consul to her country. While there, she was approached by a Dutch art dealer with a special interest in Byzantine icons and religious paintings, many looted shamelessly from the hundreds of ancient churches located in the occupied area of Cyprus after the Turkish invasion. In this detailed narrative, rendered in occasionally stilted English, the author moves back and forth in time to give a sense of her life in Cyprus before the invasion among her intensely pious Christian community, and she shows how crucial to their religion these icons were. She re-creates the time she was first approached by the dealer, Michel Van Rijn, in 1988; he held out to her tantalizing possibilities of retrieving many sacred icons from Aydin Dikmen, a Turkish dealer with whom he maintained shadowy dealings. In return, she and her country would have to come up with staggering amounts of money. Over more than 10 years, Hadjitofi managed to use the highly volatile Van Rijn to get at Dikmen through an extensive undercover sting operation. Her adventures took her to Munich and London and Cyprus, and she effectively kept the police at bay to lure Dikmen into the trap and the ultimate discovery of priceless artifacts. The author's work is also a personal memoir, not only of her life in Cyprus, but also of her struggles as a young woman trying to start a family and maintain her IT business, Octagon. Her journey is endearing, and she brings the plight of the Cypriots into sharper focus. An intimate trek into the venal world of art looting and selling.

Kirkus Reviews