Spencer Compton, the Marquess of Northampton, gave The Sunday Times exclusive access to the repository in south London where the Sevso treasure has lain hidden for more than a decade. It comprises 14 exquisitely engraved silver plates, ewers, basins and caskets valued in 1990 at between USD 70 million and USD 100 million, and now estimated by some experts to be worth about GBP 40 million. Now he plans to sell it for tens of millions of pounds to save his historic family seat.
Compton told The Sunday Times that he had first been persuaded to invest in the treasure in January 1982 by Peter Wilson, the former chairman of Sotheby?s, and by the ?shockingly bad advice? of his then London law firm Allen & Overy. He gradually bought more pieces as they came on to the market and has since been fighting to make good on his investment. In 1990 he thought he had succeeded when, before a proposed auction, Sotheby?s valued the treasure at up to USD 100 million. But the day after it went on display in New York, the government of Lebanon obtained an injunction that sent the silver back into a vault, claiming that it had been illegally exported with certificates that were either forged or obtained by bribery. In short order, the governments of Hungary and what was then Yugoslavia also filed lawsuits in New York, each claiming that the Sevso silver had been unearthed on their territory and demanding it back, The Sunday Times said.
Legally, the silver was owned by a trust, which became the defendant in the three competing lawsuits. But the trust had no assets other than the silver and it could pay its lawyers and fight the case only if Compton lent it the money. At the last minute Lebanon abandoned its claim. After a hearing lasting seven weeks, the jury dismissed the claims of Hungary and what was now Croatia, both of which went all the way to the New York appeals court and lost, the Times wrote.
Although the trust now indisputably owned the treasure, it could not be sold even if a buyer came forward because Sotheby?s was demanding its costs, legal and otherwise, of GBP 7 million and placed a lien on it. In great secrecy, the silver was shipped to Britain immediately after the last appeals in New York failed. It was placed in a vault and has remained there ever since. Sotheby?s claim was eventually settled out of court, as was Compton?s claim against Allen and Overy and one of its senior partners, but Compton said, he is determined to bring the saga to an end by taking steps to ensure that the Sevso silver can be shown and eventually sold.
That process will begin, he hopes, when the silver goes on private exhibition for academics at Bonhams, the London auction house. ?I do not want my wife or my son to inherit what has become a curse,? Compton said. ?I doubt it will be sold overnight, but eventually I hope somebody or some institution will buy it and it will go on permanent display so that people can enjoy and appreciate its exquisite beauty.?
Éva Hajdú, an expert at the Ministry of Education and Culture who is responsible for issues connected to the Sevso treasure, told Népszabadság, Hungary?s best-selling broadsheet, that the ministry was aware of the planned exhibition and had already informed the UK authorities that the treasure must not be sold. According to Hajdú, the treasure has no owner. Its holder possesses limited rights, and may not sell the objects, even if Hungary?s claims of ownership are not accepted. According to the letter sent by the Hungarian authority, no country has issued an export licence for the objects, which means they were illegally taken abroad, and it is against the law to sell stolen objects.
Source: Múlt-kor / The Sunday Times
