Ownership of Colonial-era Torah finial bells disputed

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) – A disagreement over the ownership of a set of Torah finial bells from Colonial times that is worth millions has led to dueling lawsuits between leaders of the nation's first Jewish congregation and the nation's oldest synagogue.

The dispute started after leaders of the nearly 250-year-old Touro Synagogue in Newport, R.I., agreed to sell the bells, called rimonim, for $7.4 million to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The sale is opposed by leaders of Congregation Shearith Israel in New York City, who say it owns Touro and the rimonim.

They argue the sale violates religious practice and will remove ownership of the bells from the Jewish community. They're seeking to remove the Newport congregation from practicing at Touro, which was named a National Historic Site in 1946 and is visited by tens of thousands of people every year.

Both sides have sued in federal court in Rhode Island, and Congregation Shearith Israel has also sued in federal court in New York. U.S. District Judge William Smith in Providence is scheduled to hold a settlement conference Thursday.

Congregation Shearith Israel, which overlooks Central Park on New York City's Upper West Side, was first established in 1654 by Jews of Spanish and Portuguese descent. It is the nation's first and oldest Jewish congregation.

The nation's second Jewish congregation, also of Spanish and Portuguese origin, was established in Newport four years later, drawn by the religious tolerance established in the colony by Rhode Island's founder, Roger Williams. A century later, the Newport congregation bought land and constructed a synagogue, which was dedicated during Hanukkah on Dec. 2, 1763. It was named for Isaac Touro, a Dutch Jew who became the congregation's first spiritual leader.

George Washington visited Newport in 1790, and later that year wrote a now-famous letter to the city's Jewish community affirming the new nation's dedication to religious tolerance, saying it “gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.” The letter is now read annually at Touro.

By the early 1800s, the city's Jewish population had dwindled as Newport's importance waned. The city's last Jewish resident left in 1822. In the decades to come, Touro fell into disrepair. Some items, including Torah scrolls and possibly the finial bells, were transferred to the New York congregation.

Touro's leaders claim in its lawsuits that Congregation Shearith Israel became trustee for the Newport synagogue, while Congregation Shearith Israel says it took ownership of the synagogue, its cemetery, Torahs, rimonim and other objects. Touro reopened in the late 1800s, and the Newport congregation ultimately signed a lease in 1903 to rent Touro from Congregation Shearith Israel for $1 per year.

The finial bells were made in the 1760s or 1770s by Colonial silversmith Myer Myers, a Jewish contemporary of Paul Revere's, who operated out of New York. They are placed on the handles of a Torah scroll when not in use. Touro has two of them.

Leaders of Touro in 2010 asked the auction house Christie's to find a buyer for one of its sets, said David Bazarsky, former president of Touro Synagogue and a third-generation member of the congregation there. Their aim was to raise money to ensure Touro will always be maintained, have services and have a rabbi in residence while also finding a place that would allow the public to see the finial bells, he said.

At the time, Boston's Museum of Fine Arts was about to open a new Art of the Americas wing, which included a Newport room. The bells have been on display there since 2010, and the museum in 2011 offered to purchase the bells permanently, Bazarsky said.

“Our goal is really to take the money, put it into a trust, and endowment fund, and secure the future while having the opportunity to display the finial bells. We think it's part of history, it's part of the culture of America, and it's overwhelmingly positive,” he said.

The MFA's offer has since been rescinded until the ownership dispute is resolved, a spokeswoman for the museum said.

Touro's lawsuit, filed in November, asks Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Kilmartin to intervene because he administers charitable trusts. Spokeswoman Amy Kempe says the office is reviewing the case.

Representatives for Congregation Shearith Israel declined to comment on the record about the lawsuit, but in court papers, they say they learned about the proposed sale in June and had hoped to settle before Touro sued. The New York congregation asks the congregation at Newport be removed from practicing at Touro because, it says, they are violating the terms of the $1-per-year lease. It says Touro is bound to follow its religious traditions, and such a sale violates them.

It suggests a long-term lease of the bells to the museum, something Bazarsky said Touro is open to and has discussed with the MFA but which they can't pursue until they resolve the question of who owns the bells. Still, he said, he is hopeful the two sides can work out an agreement.

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AP-WF-01-01-13 0111GMT

Fla. man pleads guilty in NY in dinosaur dispute

NEW YORK (AP) — A Florida fossils dealer pleaded guilty to smuggling charges Thursday and agreed to give up a celebrated $1 million dinosaur skeleton seized by the U.S. government earlier this year for its eventual return to Mongolia.

Eric Prokopi, 38, said he would surrender the 70 million-year-old Tyrannosaurus bataar skeleton known as "Ty" and give up any claims to six other dinosaurs and various other bones in a cooperation deal that might win him leniency from charges that carry a potential prison sentence of up to 17 years.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Martin S. Bell read a list of the dinosaurs to Magistrate Judge Ronald L. Ellis, saying a second substantially complete Tyrannosaurus skeleton was found at Prokopi's Gainesville, Fla., home, while a third was believed to be in Great Britain.

Bell said the government will also get to keep a Chinese flying dinosaur that Prokopi illegally imported; a skeleton of a Saurolophus, a duckbilled, plant eating dinosaur from the late Cretaceous period; and two Oviraptor skeletons, one found at Prokopi's home and the other at another residential dwelling in Florida. The Oviraptors have parrot-like skulls.

"It's among the larger dinosaur shopping lists you'll see today," Bell told the magistrate judge.

In a release, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said: "Fossils and ancient skeletal remains are part of the fabric of a country's natural history and cultural heritage, and black marketers like Prokopi who illegally export and sell these wonders, steal a slice of that history. We are pleased that we can now begin the process of returning these prehistoric fossils to their countries of origin."

The government accused Prokopi of smuggling bones into the country illegally from Mongolia before assembling them into a skeleton that was sold by Dallas-based Heritage Auctions for $1.05 million, a deal that was suspended pending the outcome of litigation. The government said the dinosaur skeleton was mislabeled as reptile bones from Great Britain.

Prokopi remains free on bail pending a sentencing scheduled for April 25. After his plea Thursday, he immediately went with prosecutors to their offices without commenting.

In a statement last spring, Prokopi defended his handling of the dinosaur, saying the value of the bones was labeled much lower than the eventual auction price because "it was loose, mostly broken bones and rocks with embedded bones. It was not what you see today, a virtually complete, mounted skeleton."

Prokopi pleaded guilty to conspiracy for importing the Chinese flying dinosaur, entry by goods by means of false statements for importing Mongolian dinosaurs and one count of interstate and foreign transportation of goods converted and taken by fraud.

In describing his crimes, Prokopi said he wrote an email to a fossils dealer in China in 2010, instructing him to mislabel customs documents to make it appear that the bones of a Chinese flying dinosaur were worth less than they were.

He said that from 2010 to 2012, he arranged for shipments of fossils from Mongolia to be described in customs documents as if their country of origin were Great Britain.

The magistrate judge asked Prokopi if the country of origin on the documents was an important fact.

"Well, apparently," Prokopi said, prompting a brief discussion between the prosecutor and Prokopi's defense lawyer.

Afterward, Prokopi said the labeling of the relics was purposefully "vague and misleading so that they didn't bring attention to the shipment."

The magistrate judge asked him what would have happened if he had labeled them accurately.

"Probably nothing," Prokopi said, pausing and then adding, "or it may not have been allowed to be imported."

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NY tightens restrictions on illegal ivory trade

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — In an effort to shutter the U.S. as a modern elephant graveyard, New York regulators are now demanding more proof that intricately carved artwork and fine white jewelry abide by state law.

In New York, it is illegal to sell ivory from elephants killed after 1978. The state is now requiring retailers and wholesalers licensed to sell older ivory to show detailed provenance of all their pieces.

"The laws have been the same in New York since the late '70s. What's changed is because of the plight of the elephant, our department has changed posture as far as what proof you need to show that you owned this prior to it being listed back in the '70s," said Maj. Scott Florence, chief state environmental crimes investigator.

Wildlife groups say African poachers, including militias and armed gangs, accelerated the lucrative slaughter to about 30,000 elephants last year.

"It's up hugely," said Liz Bennett of the Wildlife Conservation Society. She noted the recent seizure in Malaysia of about 1,500 tusks.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare said authorities worldwide confiscated about 27 tons of ivory in 2011, estimating 25,000 to 50,000 elephants were killed that year.

Investigators over the past two years have confiscated two tons of ivory that passed through New York City, considered a primary black market supporting the slaughter of the world's largest land mammals.

New York requires ivory dealers to be licensed, although officials acknowledge there are untold numbers of unsanctioned sellers.

About 110 retailers and wholesalers were previously licensed, but the number is down to about 60 under the new, tighter provisions. More than a dozen applications were rejected, some outright and some for partial inventories, said wildlife biologist Joseph Therrien of the Department of Environmental Conservation's special licensing unit. Other dealers' license applications are pending.

"We had to do it across the board: a new applicant, anybody renewing a license, or anybody who's even amending," he said.

In a recent seizure, the DEC found thousands of smooth white bracelets with silver clasps, the ivory identifiable by its faint Shrager lines. A single bracelet was tagged at $270 wholesale, $540 retail. The haul included nearly a ton of mass-produced statues and jewelry, with estimated value above $2 million. Officials said it is probably headed to a federal repository in Colorado.

The state investigation in New York City's diamond district began with a tip from an off-duty federal inspector who saw ivory that looked new at New York Jewelry Mart Corp. Pristine white pieces are often a giveaway; older ivory tends to discolor.

DEC Lt. John Fitzpatrick said undercover investigators bought enough to establish a felony state offense and identified the wholesaler as Raja Jewels Inc., which was selling to other jewelers by appointment. There were 1970s invoices for some ivory, but none for the bracelets that apparently came from India, and neither company had a state ivory sales permit.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance obtained guilty pleas from both sellers this summer to state felony charges of illegal commercialization of wildlife. They gave up the ivory and agreed to pay almost $50,000 altogether to the Wildlife Conservation Society. DEC's focus is in-state sales, with some other investigations pending, while the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service focuses on smuggling and interstate cases and had other major New York City prosecutions in 2010.

Attorney David Holland, representing Raja owner Mukesh Gupta, said New York restricts post-1978 sales, while federal smuggling enforcement and an international treaty impose a 1989 cutoff.

"There is a general state of confusion for individuals who have contemplated purchasing or selling ivory as they are unaware that the Endangered Species Act and New York state law are the controlling principles and not the international treaties related to the ban of the sale of ivory worldwide, which came later," he said.

In September, art dealer Victor Gordon of Philadelphia pleaded guilty to felony smuggling in Brooklyn federal court and gave up a ton of ivory, including intricately carved whole tusks. Investigators said it was deliberately stained to make it appear antique. Gordon agreed to pay $150,000. Free on $1 million bond, he could face up to 20 years in prison, though that's considered unlikely. Gordon's attorney Daniel-Paul Alva declined to comment with his client facing sentencing in April.

Hundreds of tusks and carvings were seized in Philadelphia, with others confiscated in Bryn Mawr and Carversville, Pa.; Brooklyn and Valley Stream, N.Y.; Lawrence, Kan.; Columbia, Mo.; Hillsborough, Calif.; and Miami. Several pieces were taken from buyers. The case was prosecuted in New York because much of the ivory came through Kennedy Airport in Queens.

"We try to go after the larger organizations commercializing or doing most of the damage to the species," said Ed Grace, deputy chief of law enforcement for the wildlife service.

He said it would be difficult to estimate the size of the U.S. market for ivory, probably second only to China, and the New York-New Jersey area seems to be the epicenter.

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Italian police recover ancient Egyptian sculpture

Maj. Massimo Rossi of the Italian Tax Police says the sphinx, perhaps as old as the fourth century B.C., was found on the outskirts of Rome last week. It was in a box hidden in a greenhouse near an ancient Etruscan necropolis.

Rossi said Thursday that the sphinx, which is roughly 2 feet tall and 4 feet long, likely adorned a first century B.C. Roman villa, in keeping with the fashion then for Egyptian sculpture as decoration.

He said an Italian and a Romanian are being investigated in the probe of suspected illicit trafficking in antiquities. Villa Giulia museum, which specializes in Etruscan antiquities, will host the sphinx.

Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-WF-12-06-12 1533GMT