New York Supreme Court Orders Return of Achaemenid Artifact
A New York Supreme Court judge ruled on Monday, August 21, that a relief depicting an Achaemenid soldier be returned to Iran.
According to the New York Times, the stone relief, which dates back to around 500 BC, was seized by Manhattan District Attorney's Office agents in October last year from an art gallery called Emory Avenue Park. The art gallery was planning to sell the Achaemenid-era work at auction for $1.2 million, according to the New York Times.
According to the report, researchers said that this Achaemenid-era work was first illegally removed from Iran in 1936 and then stolen from the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in Canada in 2011.
Reports indicate that the court will not prosecute the two buyers of the work.
Rupert Wass, a well-known antiques dealer, and his partner Sam Fogg had said they purchased the artifact legally from the Montreal Museum Insurance Company, but after research and the history of the artifact showed it had been stolen, they agreed to sign court documents regarding the artifact.
Mr. Weiss wrote in an email last year when the work was seized that researchers know the artwork well and are aware of its 70-year history.
The US Supreme Court also ruled in March last year that Americans injured in the 1997 bombing in Jerusalem and claiming Iranian involvement in the attack cannot seize Achaemenid tablets at the University of Chicago Museum to cover their $71.5 million in damages.
The Achaemenid tablets consisted of more than 30,000 tablets, which were sent by ship to the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago in 1314, based on government approval, and arrived there in 1316. Accordingly, expert examinations and studies were to be conducted on these tablets within three years and then returned to Iran.
After the translation and publication of a number of these tablets by American experts, a number of the tablets were returned to Iran on three occasions during the years 1327, 1350, and 1383, but this process of returning them encountered difficulties and was halted due to a legal issue related to a terrorist attack in Jerusalem and the alleged involvement of Iran in that incident.
Source: Radio Farda
