[MSN] Suit over terrorism may cost Chicago museum its Persian collection.

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Posted on Sat, Jul. 01, 2006

Suit over terrorism may cost Chicago museum its Persian collection
By Ron Grossman

Chicago Tribune

(MCT)

CHICAGO - A federal judge has rejected a key defense by the University of
Chicago in a lawsuit over rights to ancient Persian artifacts, a decision
bound to ripple through the American museum community.

The next step, according to the Rhode Island lawyer who sued the university
and several renowned museums: Seize an invaluable collection at the
university's Oriental Institute - thousands of clay fragments with cuneiform
writing that came from Iran. Then auction off the pieces to compensate
victims of Middle Eastern violence on the grounds that Iran is a state
sponsor of terrorism.

The judge's decision comes as American museums are facing tough questions
about how they acquired certain collections.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York recently agreed to return
invaluable antiquities that Italian authorities said had been looted from
that country. The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles is negotiating a
similar claim with Italy.

The judge's rebuke to University of Chicago left several other lines of
defense still to be heard. The case, which also involves the Chicago's Field
Museum of Natural History, comes back to court for another hearing next
month.

University of Chicago had argued that it needed to protect Iran's rights to
the property, even though Iran declined to come to court. The university
claimed the Iranians were gun-shy because of bad experiences with the
American legal system - a claim rejected by U.S. District Judge Blanche M.
Manning in Chicago.

In a decision published last week, Manning ruled that the university's
"brazen accusation that the courts of the United States are hostile to Iran
and that, as a result, Iran should be excused from bothering to assert its
rights, is wholly unsupported."