East End Libraries Presents: Tales From the Temple of Ishtar with Raymond Dowd

Dowd will lecture on Dunnington’s landmark 2013 NY Court of Appeals victory in Matter of Flamenbaum for German museum recovering a golden Assyrian tablet
(excavated from the Temple of Ishtar in 1913 by archeologist Walter Andrae). The Assyrian tablet surfaced in 2003 in a decedent’s Nassau County NY safe
deposit box. Flamenbaum is an historic landmark: clearly rejecting the spoils of war doctrine and reaffirming the common law rule that no one can take good title to property from a thief (and rejecting the Surrogate’s Court’s ruling that the museum’s claim was barred by the laches doctrine). Following the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 and the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928 outlawing wars of aggression, Flamenbaum’s logic removes the profit motive from war and genocide – even when criminal proceeds surface generations later. One of the more critical issues in archaeology concerns the subject of looting. How should this term be defined and how should an artifact or assortment of stolen cultural treasures be handled? Raymond Dowd, who argued the case before the New York Court of Appeals will discuss the historical importance of the Flamenbaum gold tablet, its beauty and provenance, as well as the significance of court rulings in determining ownership of this highly contested masterpiece from the past, itself a victim to warfare.

Please register via Shelter Island Public Library at:  

Registration Link

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_mIiEj84-TnuxlgTHxpyjLw