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Ancient Treasure Now Family's Holocaust Talisman

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Member: Dec-10-1996
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3. Assyrian gold tablet must go back to Germany, NY court rules

Nov-15-2013 at 10:02 PM (UTC+3 Nineveh, Assyria)

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A 3,200-year-old gold tablet that's smaller than a credit card is at the center of a court case between a Holocaust survivor’s family and a Berlin museum.
Photo: N.Y. State Court of Appeals via AP

Assyrian gold tablet must go back to Germany, NY court rules
by Michael Virtanen. The Associated Press, November 15, 2013.

ALBANY, N.Y. — In a ruling rejecting any claims to the "spoils of war," New York's highest court concluded Thursday that an ancient gold tablet must be returned to the German museum that lost it in World War II.

The Court of Appeals unanimously agreed that Riven Flamenbaum's estate is not entitled to the 3,000-year-old Assyrian relic, a 9.5-gram (0.34-ounce) tablet smaller than a credit card.

“We decline to adopt any doctrine that would establish good title based upon the looting and removal of cultural objects during wartime by a conquering military force. The 'spoils of war' theory proffered by the estate — that the Russian government, when it invaded Germany, gained title to the museum's property as a spoil of war, and then transferred that title to the decedent — is rejected.”

New York court memorandum

"We decline to adopt any doctrine that would establish good title based upon the looting and removal of cultural objects during wartime by a conquering military force," the court said in a memorandum. "The 'spoils of war' theory proffered by the estate — that the Russian government, when it invaded Germany, gained title to the museum's property as a spoil of war, and then transferred that title to the decedent — is rejected."

The tablet, inscribed with an exhortation to honor King Tukulti-Ninurta I, was excavated a century ago by German archaeologists from the Ishtar Temple in what's now northern Iraq. It went on display in 1934 and disappeared after the start of the war.

No 'finders keepers'
Flamenbaum, an Auschwitz survivor, brought the tablet to the United States when he settled in New York. Family lore says he got it by trading cigarettes to a Russian soldier.

The New York court also rejected the argument the Vorderasiatisches Museum, part of the renowned Pergamon Museum, waited too long — more than 60 years — before trying to reclaim it. A judge on Long Island said it had unreasonably delayed, but a midlevel court last year ruled the other way.

"New York has really affirmed its moral leadership in protecting true property owners," said museum attorney Raymond Dowd. "This decision makes it clear that the rule of finders keepers is not the law in New York."

The ruling should ensure the safe return of the tablet, Dowd said. The museum has many other pieces still missing since the war, he said, adding that some Holocaust groups filed a court brief supporting the museum's claim.

'Right of conquest'?
Attorney Steven Schlesinger said the family was disappointed and questioned whether the court refused to uphold "title by right of conquest" because it would open the door for those who obtained art looted by Germans during the Holocaust.

"You can't argue that the United States doesn't recognize the right of conquest when this entire country is the result of the law of conquest," he said, citing territorial expansion that includes Texas and California and at least 50 Indian land claims in New York.

The Court of Appeals said there was no proof that Russia ever possessed the tablet, and that it was the official U.S. policy during World War II to forbid pillaging of cultural artifacts.

According to court documents, the tablet dates to 1243 to 1207 B.C., during Tukulti-Ninurta's reign. Placed in the foundation of the temple of the fertility goddess, its 21 lines call on those who find the temple to honor the king's name.

In 1945, the Berlin museum's premises was overrun, with many items taken by Russians, others by German troops and some pilfered by people who took shelter in the museum. The museum director was not in a position to say who took it, only that it disappeared.

It has been in a deposit box in New York.

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Assyria \ã-'sir-é-ä\ n (1998)   1:  an ancient empire of Ashur   2:  a democratic state in Bet-Nahren, Assyria (northern Iraq, northwestern Iran, southeastern Turkey and eastern Syria.)   3:  a democratic state that fosters the social and political rights to all of its inhabitants irrespective of their religion, race, or gender   4:  a democratic state that believes in the freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture in faithfulness to the principles of the United Nations Charter — Atour synonym

Ethnicity, Religion, Language
» Israeli, Jewish, Hebrew
» Assyrian, Christian, Aramaic
» Saudi Arabian, Muslim, Arabic
Assyrian \ã-'sir-é-an\ adj or n (1998)   1:  descendants of the ancient empire of Ashur   2:  the Assyrians, although representing but one single nation as the direct heirs of the ancient Assyrian Empire, are now doctrinally divided, inter sese, into five principle ecclesiastically designated religious sects with their corresponding hierarchies and distinct church governments, namely, Church of the East, Chaldean, Maronite, Syriac Orthodox and Syriac Catholic.  These formal divisions had their origin in the 5th century of the Christian Era.  No one can coherently understand the Assyrians as a whole until he can distinguish that which is religion or church from that which is nation -- a matter which is particularly difficult for the people from the western world to understand; for in the East, by force of circumstances beyond their control, religion has been made, from time immemorial, virtually into a criterion of nationality.   3:  the Assyrians have been referred to as Aramaean, Aramaye, Ashuraya, Ashureen, Ashuri, Ashuroyo, Assyrio-Chaldean, Aturaya, Chaldean, Chaldo, ChaldoAssyrian, ChaldoAssyrio, Jacobite, Kaldany, Kaldu, Kasdu, Malabar, Maronite, Maronaya, Nestorian, Nestornaye, Oromoye, Suraya, Syriac, Syrian, Syriani, Suryoye, Suryoyo and Telkeffee. — Assyrianism verb

Aramaic \ar-é-'máik\ n (1998)   1:  a Semitic language which became the lingua franca of the Middle East during the ancient Assyrian empire.   2:  has been referred to as Neo-Aramaic, Neo-Syriac, Classical Syriac, Syriac, Suryoyo, Swadaya and Turoyo.

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