Berlin museum seeks return of ancient gold tablet

AP ^ | 16 Oct 2013 | Michael Virtanen

[Theoria]

Berlin antiquities museum wants Holocaust survivor's family to return ancient gold tablet

A Holocaust survivor's family urged New York's highest court Tuesday to let them keep an ancient gold tablet that their late father somehow obtained in Germany after World War II.

Attorney Steven Schlesinger argued that the estate of Riven Flamenbaum has a legal claim, whether the native of Poland bought the relic from a Russian soldier or simply took it to compensate for losing his family at Auschwitz, the concentration camp where he spent several years.

"Under the Soviet rules at the time, there was permission to pillage and plunder," Schlesinger said. "My client could have taken it in retribution."

The tablet was in the collection of the Vorderasiatisches Museum, a branch of the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, before the war. The family argued that the museum's failure to reclaim the tablet for 60 years was an unreasonable delay, undercutting its claim. Schlesinger said Flamenbaum had been told by Christie's in 1954 that the small tablet was a fake and kept it at home. It's now in a safety deposit box on Long Island.

Museum attorney Raymond Dowd said the absence of the 3,200-year-old relic was quickly noted by the museum, later reported by scholars and widely known.

"There's no such thing as a right of pillage," Dowd said. "Reparation has nothing to do with this case."

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Theoria.

"Under the Soviet rules at the time, there was permission to pillage and plunder," Schlesinger said. "My client could have taken it in retribution." The tablet was in the collection of the Vorderasiatisches Museum, a branch of the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, before the war. The family argued that the museum's failure to reclaim the tablet for 60 years was an unreasonable delay, undercutting its claim. Schlesinger said Flamenbaum had been told by Christie's in 1954 that the small tablet was a fake and kept it at home. It's now in a safety deposit box on Long Island. Museum attorney Raymond Dowd said the absence of the 3,200-year-old relic was quickly noted by the museum, later reported by scholars and widely known. "There's no such thing as a right of pillage," Dowd said. "Reparation has nothing to do with this case."

Pretty sure there's no rules of pillage, either.

[colorado tanker]

Well, at least not in recent times. :-))

[eleni121]

GET RID OF MUSEUMS. The zoos of the elites.

[eleni121]

Excellent! Germans are definitely a “legalistic bunch” ...how dare they ask for anything back??!!! Some chutzpah...and they invented the even more horrible modern state bureaucracy that has probably killed more human beings than any army ever did...

[dsc]

“Pretty sure there’s no rules of pillage, either.”

Funny. Funnier on second consideration.

[Old Student]

“Pretty sure there’s no rules of pillage, either.”

What about “Rape, Pillage, Loot, and THEN burn!”

AFAIK, that is the ONLY rule for pillage.

Been a while since taking booty was allowed to US servicemen. In any sense of the word “booty.”

OK, yes, my sick sense of humor may have no place in this thread. Let the moderator decide.