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ANTIQUITIES TRADE IS SUBJECT OF ESSAY BY HARVEY KURZWEIL '69

ANTIQUITIES TRADE IS SUBJECT OF ESSAY BY HARVEY KURZWEIL '69

Who owns the Elgin marbles, removed from the Parthenon 200 years ago? The long-running debate and other matters surrounding ownership of antiquities is covered in a series of essays in Who Owns the Past?: Cultural Policy, Cultural Property, and the Law (Rutgers University Press, 2005).

Among the contributors is Harvey Kurzweil ‘69, a partner in Dewey Ballantine, whose areas of expertise include claims over contested art works. Along with coauthors Leo V. Gagion and Ludovic de Walden, Mr. Kurzweil contributes "The Trial of Sevso Treasure: What a Nation Will Do in the Name of its Heritage," which describes the 1993 trial in which Croatia and Hungary "attempted to wrest legal possession" of a collection of fourth-century Roman silver and copper artifacts from its British owner.

The story, Mr. Kurzweil says, is troubling. The governments introduced conflicting eyewitness testimony and attempted to recast past events as sinister. "It is also a textbook example of the perils of the antiquities trade," he adds. After a legal battle that lasted three years and a seven-week trial, both governments lost.