## Facts

- Four sixth-century Byzantine mosaics were removed without authorization from the Church of Panagia Kanakaria in northern Cyprus during the period following the 1974 Turkish invasion and occupation.
- The Autocephalous Greek-Orthodox Church of Cyprus and the Republic of Cyprus asserted continuous ownership and contended the mosaics were stolen and illicitly exported.
- Peg Goldberg, an Indiana art dealer, learned the mosaics were for sale through intermediaries connected to the illicit art trade and proceeded despite warning signs, including dealings involving a person with a reputation for fraud.
- Goldberg inspected the mosaics briefly at the Geneva airport, arranged financing, and imported the mosaics to Indiana for her gallery, Goldberg & Feldman Fine Arts, Inc.
- Cypriot church and government authorities undertook efforts over several years to locate the missing mosaics; once they were traced to Goldberg and informal recovery efforts failed, plaintiffs filed a civil replevin action in Indiana federal court seeking possession.
- After a bench trial, the district court awarded possession to the Church and ordered return; defendants appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether federal diversity jurisdiction existed and whether the Republic of Cyprus had standing to seek recovery.
2. Whether Indiana’s statute of limitations barred replevin, including whether a discovery-based accrual rule and fraudulent concealment applied to stolen art.
3. Whether Indiana or Swiss law governed title/possession and whether defendants could claim rights as good-faith purchasers.
4. Whether purported confiscatory decrees of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus could divest the Church of title.

## Decision

- The Seventh Circuit affirmed the judgment awarding possession of the mosaics to the plaintiffs.
- The court upheld application of Indiana’s discovery rule, under which the limitations period does not begin until the owner, exercising due diligence, could reasonably have discovered the location/possessor of the property.
- The court sustained the rejection of defendants’ good-faith purchaser position on the record of suspicious acquisition circumstances.
- The court rejected reliance on TRNC decrees as a basis to extinguish the Church’s ownership.

## Legal Principles

- Replevin is the proper civil remedy to recover specific personal property wrongfully possessed by another.
- Under Indiana law, a purchaser cannot obtain good title to stolen property from a thief or downstream transferees.
- For stolen chattels, Indiana applies a discovery-based rule: the limitations period is tolled until the rightful owner, using reasonable diligence, could have discovered the wrongful possession; concealment-related doctrines may also toll accrual.
- Choice-of-law in this context turns on the jurisdiction with the most significant relationship to the dispute; the place of purchase may be outweighed by the place of possession, financing, and litigation contacts.
- Claimed “good faith” is defeated where circumstances would cause a reasonable buyer to investigate provenance and legal export; failure to conduct meaningful due diligence weighs against good-faith status.
- Acts or decrees of an unrecognized foreign entity are not given effect to divest title in U.S. litigation where recognition and legitimacy are lacking.

## Conclusion

The Seventh Circuit affirmed an order returning stolen Byzantine mosaics to the Church of Cyprus, holding the replevin claim timely under Indiana’s discovery-based limitations rule and rejecting defenses based on asserted good-faith purchase and confiscatory decrees of an unrecognized regime.


Autocephalous Greek-Orthodox Church of Cyprus v. Goldberg & Feldman Fine Arts, Inc., 917 F.2d 278 (7th Cir. 1990)