Tug of war over disputed relic from Lebanon

A tug of war has broken out over an ancient relic from Lebanon that Manhattan prosecutors have impounded ("U.S. tug of war over disputed relic from Lebanon" Daily Star August 04, 2017 )

Lynda and William Beierwaltes initially purchased the head in 1996 from a London dealer, who had bought it from an art dealer in Switzerland. According to the New York Times, they paid $1 million for the work. In 2010, the couple sold the head to a private collector in the United States, who loaned it to the Met, which put it on public display. After a curator discovered it may have been stolen from government storage during Lebanon’s Civil War, the museum said it took “immediate action” and handed over the head to the Manhattan district attorney’s office. [...] When Lebanon demanded restitution, the Beierwaltes, who rescinded the 2010 sale, filed a 20-page lawsuit in a U.S. federal court against Lebanon’s directorate of antiquities and the New York district attorney’s office. “The Beierwaltes are bona fide purchasers with clean hands,” their lawyer William Pearlstein said. “By contrast, for more than 50 years, Lebanon has failed take any action domestically or internationally to report any theft of the bull’s head.” Pearlstein says there were no grounds under federal law for state prosecutors to seize the relic and that even if the head had been stolen, the statue of limitations under Lebanese law has expired.

People walk through galleries at New York's Metropolitan
Museum of Art, May 31, 2013. Spencer Platt/Getty Images/AFP

Museums in the U.S. should be ashamed. Defend and protect against frivolous claims for antiquities lawfully acquired. Seealso: Peter Tompa, "Collectors Contest Lawless Seizure" August 2, 2017.