New York’s highest court on Thursday ordered loved ones of a Long Island Holocaust survivor to fork over an ancient gold relic, worth $10 million, to a German museum.
A 3,000-year-old, 9.5-gram tablet has been with former Auschwitz prisoner Riven Flamenbaum and his Great Neck family since the end of World War II.
Flamenbaum had always told loved ones he got the credit-card-sized tablet in a trade for cigarettes with a Russian soldier. After his death in 2003, son Israel Flamenbaum went behind his family’s back to tell the Vorderasiatisches Museum about the artifact, according to lawyers for the estate.
The New York Court of Appeals rejected the estate’s “spoils of war” argument that the relic was acquired through legal means, because Soviet authorities allowed their troops to grab German valuables.
“Obviously they’re [the Flamenbaum family] very disappointed,” estate lawyer Steven Schlesinger said.
If the estate doesn’t appeal, the ancient tablet – dating back to Assyrian King Tukulti-Ninurta I – could be returned to Germany shortly after Thanksgiving.
“They’re [the German museum] very thankful that the New York Court of Appeals reached this decision,” said the museum’s New York lawyer Raymond Dowd.
Schlesinger still believes the piece was legally gained by Riven Flamenbaum.
“You can’t argue that the United States doesn’t recognize the right of conquest,” he said. “If you don’t, then let’s give back Texas to the Mexicans.”
German archeologists found the tablet during excavations between 1908 and 1914 in what’s now northern Iraq. It was sent to the famed Berlin museum, which was closed down in 1939 at the outbreak of World War II.
The valuable artifact was considered a mere trinket by Riven Flamenbaum and everyone in his family, other than Israel Flamenbaum, lawyers said.
“I don’t know when Israel figured out what it was,” Schlesinger said. “Our belief is that he went to the museum for a reward and to cut his sisters out of it.”
Israel Flamenbaum declined comment on Thursday. He’s estranged from his two sisters, including estate executor Hannah Flamenbaum.
The family believes New York’s high court ruled against their side, fearing that upholding a “spoils of war” theory could be used against World War II survivors who lost art to looting sanctioned by Nazi authorities.