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István Zelnik showing a plate not part of the Sevso Treasure
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Zelnik said he would buy the treasure if the state of Hungary temporarily waived its claim to it. He added that he would also purchase a 15th piece to add to the treasure, a silver bowl decorated with a portrait of Hadrian.
He stressed that before there can be no talk of the treasure ?coming home? until its provenance is proved, which will require a long period of research.
Zelnik suggested that the treasure get its own museum in one of several palatial mansions for sale on the capital?s grand Andrássy Boulevard.
Zelnik?s own collection is housed in a historic mansion on the same street called the Zelnik István Southeast Asian Gold Museum.
Hungary?s State Secretariat for Culture said in a statement that Zelnik had not officially contacted it on the matter, but it added that the government is open to talks with all serious and well-intentioned art collectors and art dealers regarding the fate of the Sevso Treasure.
The Sevso Treasure was probably made in a Greek workshop for a wealthy Roman client. The treasure's name derives from an inscription on one of four enormous platters made of pure silver: "May these, O Sevso, yours for many ages be, small vessels fit to serve your offspring worthily."
The treasure was allegedly found in the late 1970s by a young quarryman who is believed to have sold the pieces on the black market.
