Lack of due diligence
An ancient gold tablet excavated in Iraq from the site of an ancient
Assyrian temple by German archaeologists in 1913.
An ancient gold tablet unearthed in a 1913 dig in modern-day Iraq that
mysteriously ended up in the possession of a Holocaust survivor will
remain in his estate, a surrogate has ruled, rather than be returned
to a German museum.
In a ruling that reads like a script for an Indiana Jones movie,
Nassau County, N.Y., Surrogate John B. Riordan (See Profile) held that
the Berlin museum, where the tablet had been kept for 19 years before
its sudden disappearance at the end of World War II, could not stake a
claim to the artifact as it had not acted promptly to recover it.
"The court finds that the museum's lack of due diligence was
unreasonable," Surrogate Riordan wrote in Matter of Flamenbaum, File
No. 328416, in holding that the museum's claim was barred by the
doctrine of laches.
(more)
Assyrian temple by German archaeologists in 1913.
An ancient gold tablet unearthed in a 1913 dig in modern-day Iraq that
mysteriously ended up in the possession of a Holocaust survivor will
remain in his estate, a surrogate has ruled, rather than be returned
to a German museum.
In a ruling that reads like a script for an Indiana Jones movie,
Nassau County, N.Y., Surrogate John B. Riordan (See Profile) held that
the Berlin museum, where the tablet had been kept for 19 years before
its sudden disappearance at the end of World War II, could not stake a
claim to the artifact as it had not acted promptly to recover it.
"The court finds that the museum's lack of due diligence was
unreasonable," Surrogate Riordan wrote in Matter of Flamenbaum, File
No. 328416, in holding that the museum's claim was barred by the
doctrine of laches.
(more)