US Supreme Court blocks seizure of ancient Persian artifacts
Independent Aggregator of Iran-related News/Events, Kodoom.com: According to Reuters, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled yesterday that Americans injured in a 1997 suicide bombing in Jerusalem cannot seize ancient Persian artifacts from a Chicago museum to satisfy a $71.5 million court judgment against Iran, which they had accused of complicity in the attack by Hamas.
The justices, in an 8-0 ruling, upheld a lower court’s decision in favor of Iran that had prevented the plaintiffs from collecting on the judgment, which Tehran has not paid, by obtaining antiquities held at the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute. The important precious Persian cultural artifacts include the Persepolis Collection, thousands of ancient clay tablets boasting some of the oldest writing in the world, many inscribed with Elamite writing, on loan since 1937 and held at the Oriental Institute.
University of Chicago spokeswoman Marielle Sainvilus said the ruling "reaffirms the university’s continuing efforts to preserve and protect this cultural heritage."
Last October, prosecutors from Manhattan district attorney’s office marched into The European Fine Art Fair at the Park Avenue Armory in New York to seize an ancient limestone bas-relief of a Persian Achaemenid soldier with shield and spear, which once adorned a building in the ruins of Persepolis in Iran. The relief is worth about $1.2 million and was being offered for sale by Rupert Wace, a well-known dealer in antiquities in London (Related News Article link: Iranians Stop Sale of Ancient Achaemenid Relief at Art Fair in New York)
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