A British law enforcement officer has a curse hanging over his head ("
The strange case of the ancient Assyrian curse and the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police").
The police officer has become embroiled in a legal dispute over the ownership of a 2,800-year-old artifact, worth an estimated £800,000. He is being sued by Lebanese antiques dealer after his officers seized the sculpted slab from the London auction house Bonhams, following claims it had been stolen.What is remarkable is that the stone, now housed in a police store in an 'undisclosed location' is protected with a chilling curse placed over anyone who tampers with it or
moves it from its place of origin.
On the black basalt slab, part of a larger piece depicting King
Adad-Nirari III, are carved the words: “Whoever discards this image from
the presence of Salmanu . . . and places it into a taboo house which it
is inaccessible, may the god Salmanu, the great lord, overthrow his
sovereignty; may his name and his seed disappear in the land, may he
live in a contingent together with the slave women of his land.”
Mr Korban can show proper provenance and utterly rejects the notion that it was obtained illegally.”
In the place of the police chief, I'd give it back... but, to be honest, just to be on the safe side, when he gets it back from the British police, and it comes up for sale, I will not be placing a bid on it myself.
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