Posted on 12/19/2022 1:10:38 PM PST by SunkenCiv
This celebrated art repatriation case centered upon a number of medieval objects belonging to the Lutheran Church of St. Servatius in Quedlinburg, Germany, about 100 miles southwest of Berlin. The objects included the Samuhel Gospel, a ninth-century illuminated Latin manuscript with a jewel-encrusted cover; the Evangelistar, a printed manuscript with jeweled cover dating to 1513; five crystal reliquary flasks with gilded and jeweled mounts; a small silver reliquary box; a carved ivory comb; and a reliquary casket decorated with jewels, gilt copper repousse plaques, and carved ivory inlays that belonged to Henry I, the first Saxon king who unified the German states in the early tenth century.
In June 1945 Quedlinburg church authorities reported that objects from their treasury were missing from a mineshaft on the outskirts of town, where the church had placed them for safekeeping during World War II. Since the Eighty-seventh Armored Field Infantry battalion had recently helped guard the mine, church officials lodged a complaint with the United States Army...
The objects from the Quedlinburg treasury became the subject of an intense search after the Samuhel Gospel appeared on the market in Europe in 1987 and was sold in April 1990 to the Cultural Foundation for the States in Berlin, an organization devoted to the repatriation of lost German art. At that time, the Evangelistar was also in the hands of a Swiss dealer. The purchase of the Samuhel Gospel led a German investigator, Willi Korte, to search Pentagon records and then led him to Texas.
(Excerpt) Read more at tshaonline.org ...
The Church filed a civil lawsuit against the Meador Heirs in Whitewright, Texas, seeking return of the Quedlinburg treasures not already back in Germany.
On 7 January 1991, the parties announced in London that they had reached an agreement for the return of the treasures to Quedlinburg. Subsequently, the US Government began investigating the transactions concerning the Samuhel Gospel and Evangeliar manuscripts. This led to criminal accusations against the Meador Heirs and their lawyer, which were dismissed by the District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
“After the dismissal of the criminal case, the Internal Revenue Service announced it was seeking $8.6 million in federal taxes, $2.1 million in penalties, and more than $40 million in interest from the estate. The Meadors eventually settled the case on 20 April 2000 by agreeing to pay only $135,000”.
I can understand the need to pay some tax...
I think the attempt to go after them for selling the objects makes no sense since they weren’t the actual people who took the things and merely inherited them after the fact.
IRS tried for way too much, so it makes sense where they settled....though court costs/lawyer fees likely ate up everything else they managed to negotiate.
Shocking to me that a US officer would do this.
On any level of civility and humanity, I find it appalling there are folks who knowingly sell items that have were stolen.
As they still had the articles in possession, I would have rather they’d been gone after criminally.
It makes my skin crawl knowing we had/have military folks who steal.
And family members who have anything to do with stolen goods are just as guilty; I don’t see a time limit.
It’s one thing to not know....they found out and still wanted to hang on to stolen goods.
Yuck. Ick.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
