FIRST OFF . . .

An Indianapolis art dealer agreed Tuesday to give the Greek Orthodox Church of Cyprus access to four 6th-Century mosaics while she decides whether to appeal a judge’s order to return them to the Cypriots. A U.S. district judge ruled last week that dealer Peg Goldberg had not obtained valid title to the mosaics when she bought them last summer in Switzerland for $1.2 million. After the judgment, Goldberg refused to surrender the mosaics pending her decision on whether to appeal, but the Cypriots demanded their immediate release. The two sides now have worked out an agreement that gives the Cypriots immediate access to the mosaics, which are stored in a vault in Indianapolis. However, they are not to remove the rare artworks nor do any restoration for two weeks while Goldberg decides on an appeal. If she does not appeal, the Cypriots can take the mosaics home. The Republic of Cyprus and the church sued Goldberg in March to recover the works, which had been stripped from a church in Turkish-occupied Cyprus in the late 1970s. Cypriot officials learned of the mosaics’ whereabouts when Goldberg offered them to the J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu for $20 million in January. The church treasures date to AD 525 and depict Christ as a boy.