The Gold of Croesus, Fear and Hope

[00:00:01]The the Seuso Treasure with these 14 silver vessels is the biggest [music] treasure known from the 20th century.

[00:00:09]>> The most spectacular piece of the Seuso Treasure is the hunting plate or Seuso platter, which measures 70 cm across and is composed of 8.8 kg of pure silver.

[00:00:24]>> A rumor had been going around among archaeologists for years that in the late 1970s some pieces of silver treasure had been taken out of the country.

[00:00:35]>> [music] >> We can be very exact about when that hunting plate was in London.

[00:00:41]And within 3 days of Halim Corbin [music] having brought it to London, Joseph Shumeg was found dead in the wine cellar.

[00:00:50]>> I knew Joseph.

[00:00:52]He worked in the quarry behind me until he started his military service.

[00:00:59]>> Joseph was able to get inside where he found the antique treasure.

[00:01:06]>> It's an extremely confusing case because they built blind alleys to confuse and to cover their tracks.

[00:01:59]>> In 1990, Sotheby's received and put up for auction the largest and most important treasure from the late Roman Empire ever to be offered for sale.

[00:02:09]It became known as the Sevso Treasure.

[00:02:12]>> I didn't know what it was. My first inclination was that it was a photograph of one of the directors at Sotheby's crouching with the Sevso silver.

[00:02:22]The plates were were kind of as big [music] as tables. They were gigantic.

[00:02:30]It simply took my breath away.

[00:02:32]It is an astonishing astonishingly large beautiful collection of silver.

[00:02:41]>> They organized an exhibition before the auction to advertise it and [clears throat] get some extra publicity. Their goal, of course, was to have as many potential buyers as possible.

[00:02:54]>> That was when the international scientific and cultural public learned about the existence of the treasure for the first time.

[00:03:03]And the discovery made quite a splash in the international press.

[00:03:09]>> They had valued by taking [music] six members of their staff, senior people.

[00:03:15]And they were told not to say anything, to independently value it, and so that gave them the low estimate and the high estimate.

[00:03:24]The low estimate [music] in 1990 was $30 million and the high estimate was $100 million.

[00:03:30]Dollars.

[00:03:34]And in today, um you know, is worth hundreds of millions.

[00:03:44]>> And the Sevso Treasure, with these 14 silver vessels, is the biggest [music] treasure known from the 20th century.

[00:03:53]>> Of all the collections of silver from the late Roman Empire, the Sevso treasure is the largest.

[00:04:01]>> This set of Roman silver weighs a total of 68.5 kg and is made of 92 to 98% pure silver.

[00:04:16]What makes this collection especially unique is the four plates, which are very large and extremely heavy.

[00:04:24]They measure 70 to 72 cm across and weigh between 9 and 11.5 kg.

[00:04:31]They're large, so it's a very important discovery.

[00:04:39]>> The most spectacular piece of the Sevso treasure is the hunting plate or Sevso platter, which measures 70 cm across and is composed of 8.8 kg of pure silver.

[00:04:50]>> [music] >> In the center of what's known as the Sevso plate or Sevso platter is a medallion. The edge features a circular inscription that includes the name Sevso.

[00:05:04]>> [music] [music] >> It's a magnificent.

[00:05:14]>> Let these, oh Sevso, yours for many ages be small vessels to serve your offspring worthily.

[00:05:26]>> Based on the poem, we can deduce that the Sevso plate must have been a wedding or engagement gift.

[00:05:34]We can also deduce and theorize based on the inscription that Sevso must have been someone of high rank in the Imperial administration or in the army.

[00:05:47]>> Sevso treasure could be >> [music] >> a gift from the emperor because it's not a unique thing that the emperor sent some quite treasures [music] to this local administration officers in high ranks.

[00:06:04]>> Seuso was surely near to the governor, to the governing class, and to the emperor, but we don't know how >> Seuso was a major local landowner, provincial official, part of the Roman administration in that area.

[00:06:21]>> We don't know if he worked for the emperor, but it's likely.

[00:06:31]You can see the imprint of the edges of the four large plates from the Seuso Treasure.

[00:06:39]>> The vendor that was given as the entity that was selling the silver was the >> [music] >> Marquess of Northampton.

[00:06:47]>> And there were Lebanese certificates to go along with the objects.

[00:06:51]>> [music] >> Lord Northampton is the seventh Marquess of Northampton, one of the more established [music] aristocratic families of of Great Britain.

[00:07:02]>> His goal was to make as much money as possible by selling this treasure.

[00:07:10]During the New York exhibition at the time, only a few people had any idea of where the treasure had come from.

[00:07:20]Sotheby's claimed the treasure was from Lebanon and had Lebanese export certificates to go with it.

[00:07:28]>> The significance of the silver being found in the Lebanon was that this was unlike anything else ever found in the Western Roman Empire, and it effectively changed [music] history, our understanding of the Roman Empire. But that was the story Sotheby's had been given by their vendor.

[00:07:52]When you are dealing in antiquities in [music] particular, but in all forms of art and antiques, and it's become increasingly important where due diligence has become a key factor.

[00:08:12]I'm [music] a retired police officer from the Metropolitan Police in London, and in 1989, I was working on the International and Organized Crime Group [music] at New Scotland Yard, uh where I was asked to reform the Art [music] and Antiques Squad.

[00:08:34]In February 1990, uh I walked into my office and my phone was already ringing.

[00:08:39]And I picked it up and and there was a man on the other end of the phone saying, "Have you seen the papers today?"

[00:08:44]And I explained, "No, I hadn't seen the papers. I drive into the Scotland Yard and I hadn't had a chance to see the papers." He said, "Go and buy The Independent."

[00:08:53]And on the back page was this article about the Sevso Silver.

[00:08:57]And and it said, you know, "And Sotheby's, if you know where this came from, Sotheby's would like to hear from you."

[00:09:05]Geraldine Norman, she is the one who printed the story that was counter to Sotheby's account of where it was found, which was in the Lebanon, because she had learned that it had been discovered in Yugoslavia.

[00:09:29]>> Sotheby's might call that >> Sotheby's wrote up a questionnaire that was sent all over Europe.

[00:09:37]The questionnaire included photos.

[00:09:39]>> The questionnaire included photos.

[00:09:43]>> And by sending images of some of the pieces of the silver to the embassies of the countries that had formed the Roman Empire, Sotheby's were undertaking a part of their due diligence to check it out.

[00:09:58]They were giving those countries the opportunity to come forward and say, "Yes, we recognize this. It's been stolen from our museum. It's been illegally excavated from our territory."

[00:10:10]The result of the publication of the stories and the conflicting stories was that Lebanon, Yugoslavia served writs on Sotheby's, which froze the silver. And ultimately, they prepared for litigation in New York on the basis of these countries claiming the silver as theirs.

[00:10:38]>> The affair really began after the presentation of the treasure.

[00:10:43]A person no one had ever seen before showed up at the Yugoslavian Embassy in London.

[00:10:51]Via the ambassador, she attempted to convince the British authorities to stop the treasure from being put up for auction in New York because according to her, the treasure belonged to Yugoslavia.

[00:11:04]>> And immediately, this was followed by a request made by the Yugoslav government through to the Foreign Office in London asking that Scotland Yard investigate the origins of what was being called the Sevso silver.

[00:11:23]So, when we we started to investigate, it was with these alternatives of Yugoslavia or Lebanon.

[00:11:32]>> The export certificates for pieces.

[00:11:36]>> What we established at the end of our first 3 months was that those documents were actually fake.

[00:11:43]>> I think it was a genuine form.

[00:11:47]But there was suspicion about the signatures.

[00:11:52]It was the same signature in different places where it should have been different signatures.

[00:11:58]>> The pieces had never been to Lebanon.

[00:12:00]>> Of course, we established that that was all bogus and false. So it shows you the extent to which people will go to be able to sell an illicit antiquity even if it means changing history as we understand it.

[00:12:19]>> Scientific analysis showed that these dishes had probably been made in the 4th century.

[00:12:27]>> On the Sidcup plate, you can see a monogram at the beginning and end of the verse that circles the medallion.

[00:12:34]It's a well-known symbol called the Chi-Rho.

[00:12:39]>> As early as the era of Constantine the Great, we know with complete certainty that this sign was a symbol of attachment and loyalty to the emperor.

[00:12:49]>> In the 4th century, it was quite general to use the Christos monogram Chi-Rho.

[00:12:59]>> Scenes engraved on the silver tell stories from Roman and Greek mythology and confirm its ties to the Roman Imperial elite as well as to Greco-Roman culture, education, and traditions.

[00:13:14]>> The hunting scene [music] and and the banquet are all connected with the representations and decoration in the Pannonian and Danubian area.

[00:13:28]>> I varies evidence to show [music] a connection with that part of the Roman Empire.

[00:13:35]It could only be come from a very limited number of locations.

[00:13:43]>> Pannonia was an important region [music] because it was a frontier region.

[00:13:50]And it was at the same time so close to Italy.

[00:13:53]>> [music] >> It played a central role in the defense of Italy and Rome for hundreds of years.

[00:13:59]>> So, for the emperors, it was [music] important to have their soldiers well maintained here.

[00:14:07]>> All the army was stationed along the Danube, along the river of the Danube.

[00:14:13]But, they have money, uh salary, uh they were quite rich.

[00:14:22]>> They need built rich villas in Pannonia.

[00:14:25]>> They managed large estates and lived luxurious lives as part of the Roman elite.

[00:14:34]>> Geraldine Norman, the art correspondent for the Independent [music] newspaper, has indicated that the origins of this silver uh were in Yugoslavia, which in 1990 was still a country. It hadn't broken up.

[00:14:52]>> The Croatians claimed the treasure had been discovered in the early 1960s on the Istrian Peninsula >> [music] >> on the Brijuni Islands.

[00:15:04]>> The Brijuni Islands were part of the Roman Empire, so it was possible that the objects or treasures like these dating back to the Roman Empire could be found there.

[00:15:32]>> At the time, it was Josip Broz Tito's private island.

[00:15:36]There was no way to know if archaeological digs had taken place there.

[00:15:41]>> That whole area was a military zone, off limits, and it was in uh establishing a we were told a a surface-to-air missile site to protect the island that the excavation had come across.

[00:15:56]>> [music] >> tunnel >> According to one witness, the treasure was inside a sarcophagus.

[00:16:04]It was inside that sarcophagus that the objects were found.

[00:16:12]>> [music] >> The island was so shrouded in mystery that it was easy to imagine that if a treasure had been found there, it might never have ended up in a museum or in an official antiques market.

[00:16:30]>> And I worked very closely with the Croatian, >> [music] >> and they showed us their evidence such as it was um a video of a former uh Yugoslav police officer called to the military zone to record this silver after it had been found.

[00:16:46]And what he described just didn't match.

[00:16:49]In fact, my colleague, Tony Blair, burst out laughing at one point because what this chap was saying was there were plates, and he was indicating, you know, these were dinner plates.

[00:16:59]What he should have been saying was these were gigantic plates. But, you know, he'd missed the scale. Clearly had never seen them.

[00:17:10]There was no evidence to substantiate the Croatian claim, either.

[00:17:24]>> Well, as I say, we Scotland Yard became involved in the investigation at the request of the Yugoslav government. And then subsequently, um Hungary sent a request through Interpol saying that they believe the silver to have been found in their jurisdiction.

[00:17:43]Simultaneously, and this is really the the crucial element to this, was that those photographs that Sotheby's had sent as part of their due diligence and sent them to the Hungarian Embassy found their way to the National Museum in Budapest. [music] >> Mihály Nagy was the archaeologist from the Hungarian National Museum. He realized that certain elements and details of the objects were very similar to the characteristics of another object that was already in the Hungarian National Museum.

[00:18:19]>> This is stylistically very similar to something we have here in the museum called the Polgárdi tripod.

[00:18:31]>> This tripod is made of very pure silver, almost 98%.

[00:18:37]>> More than 1 m high, pure silver, a huge silver standard thing.

[00:18:47]>> As far as I know, the Sevso Treasure is also made of solid silver.

[00:18:53]>> The lab analysis even showed that the properties of the chemical elements were similar.

[00:19:02]>> This toiletry stand or tray stand is made using similar shapes and motifs to those found on the Sevso Treasure.

[00:19:14]>> Polgárdi The Bolgari tripod was found in May 1878 when a tree was being cut down near Sárpát Battyán on Kőszáraz Hill, very close to a cellar.

[00:19:29]The Kőszáraz Hill cellar Kőszáraz Hill. It is the stone quarry.

[00:19:41]The quadriples and the treasure belong together. It is It is sure.

[00:19:53]Mihály Nagy started talking to his colleagues to see if anyone had heard anything about these pieces.

[00:20:00]A rumor had been going around among archaeologists for years that in the late 1970s, some pieces of silver treasure had been taken out of the country.

[00:20:12]And that this treasure had been seen by a Hungarian archaeologist not in Hungary but in the United States.

[00:20:24]>> [music] [music] >> The collection had already been put up for sale once before. The Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles had presented itself as a potential buyer.

[00:20:43]That's why the treasure had been sent to Malibu in California and held there in museum storage while waiting for the sale to be finalized.

[00:20:54]Then suddenly everything changed. At the same time in the Paul Getty Museum, a Hungarian tourist happened to be passing by. An archaeology professor, and he was shown the treasure.

[00:21:06]>> The Hungarian scholar was that time in the Getty Museum as guest.

[00:21:12]And he was shown, huh, what it is and so.

[00:21:17]Pelso.

[00:21:20]There is a lake or or river or something like this and it is written Pelso.

[00:21:28]>> That's when he discovered the Latin name of Lake Balaton, the word Pelso written on one of the plates.

[00:21:35]>> Lake Balaton, known in antiquity as Lacus Pelso, is the largest natural body of water in Pannonia and in all of Central Europe.

[00:21:48]>> I have seen a beautiful silver plate with the scenes and so on [music] and with the name of of Balaton. I think this it should be connected.

[00:22:01]>> The archaeologist told the Americans that it was the Latin name of Lake Balaton and that it was more likely to be connected to Europe and more precisely to Hungary than to Lebanon.

[00:22:13]>> [music] >> The Paul Getty Museum immediately backed out of the purchase. Had the museum bought it, the investigation would have never taken place and the Sevso treasure would have been lost in the back rooms of the museum.

[00:22:30]>> The archaeological research proved [music] that round the Balaton, the lake Balaton, a great number of little villas and Roman settlements were built during [music] the 2nd and 3rd century.

[00:22:44]>> The people who lived were uh in somehow connection >> [music] >> with uh imperial administration or high ranks of military service.

[00:23:02]>> Right now, we're on the side of the ruins of a Roman villa. we're on the site of the ruins of a Roman villa that dates back to late antiquity.

[00:23:11]We're excavating and doing archaeological digs.

[00:23:15]We're currently exploring the northern part of the villa.

[00:23:19]This is the largest building in all of Pannonia, the former Roman region where the villa is located.

[00:23:26]It must have belonged to someone important and rich.

[00:23:30]Surely someone with a rank of senator.

[00:23:32]Most certainly someone [music] in the emperor's entourage.

[00:23:36]The same kind of villa was engraved on the [music] edge of the Sevso plate.

[00:23:45]>> [music] >> And the idea emerged that somehow the owner of this building could be the Sevso.

[00:23:56]>> The Polgardi tripod was found in the area just over there, on the Kosar Heg hill.

[00:24:11]>> In 1989 and 1990, there was a change in the Hungarian regime.

[00:24:16]>> And you have to bear in mind that in 1990 it was the same year really that the national police force in Hungary was established. Prior to that, it had been part of the USSR.

[00:24:31]>> A number of odd cases and classified files started to come back to the surface.

[00:24:40]>> Any family with a belief that um a member of that family had died whilst in military service and they were unhappy with the um investigation into that individual's death would be reinvestigated by the >> That's when I met a police officer who agreed to do an interview. He told me he'd be happy to talk to me about a case he was currently investigating.

[00:25:11]>> Several parents told us their sons had died during their military service.

[00:25:17]The Sumeg family in Polgardi in near Lake Balaton in in Hungary had been very unhappy at the death of their son, Joseph.

[00:25:26]And they contacted the national police.

[00:25:54]>> Sumeg >> Joseph Sumeg's body was found in an abandoned wine cellar when a controlled explosion was about to be set off in the nearby quarry.

[00:26:10]>> [music] >> As usual with these kinds of operations, the quarry employees went about knocking on the doors of the nearby homes to ensure the explosion wouldn't cause any accidents.

[00:26:21]>> [music] >> I own this property today.

[00:26:29]Joseph Sumeg was found in this abandoned cellar in 1980.

[00:26:40]>> Two people went into the cellar, which was open. Two former colleagues of Joseph Sumeg. They recognized him right away.

[00:26:49]>> I arrived in the doorway and stuck my head through. I took a few steps forward, went down the stairs, and saw that it was József Sümegh.

[00:27:01]>> There were bricks on the ground, several bricks, and he was like this.

[00:27:06]And there was a Mikado belt around his neck.

[00:27:12]>> József Sümegh had been hanged using two Mikado military belts.

[00:27:23]>> I knew József because I was born here in Bulgárdi, too.

[00:27:27]He worked in a quarry behind us before joining the army.

[00:27:34]>> He had big plans for his life.

[00:27:37]He dreamed of building a house and having a family.

[00:27:41]He just bought a piece of land.

[00:27:44]It was horrible. We were shocked.

[00:27:47]We did not know anything about any problems or concerns that might have caused him to kill himself.

[00:27:56]>> When his body was found, the military authorities were called immediately since he was a soldier.

[00:28:05]>> Beneath his feet were some bricks that had been turned over.

[00:28:09]He was hanging in such a way as to make it look like a suicide.

[00:28:14]>> So, they filled out the paperwork to declare a suicide.

[00:28:20]>> Back then in the people's army, no one would have taken the investigation any further.

[00:28:29]>> It's important to know that it was just a few days before the end of his military service. There's no reason for a soldier to kill himself just before he's discharged. He would have been looking forward to being a civilian again and getting back to normal life.

[00:28:41]>> The reopening of the case was complicated.

[00:28:44]10 years had passed between József's death and the reopening of the investigation.

[00:28:50]Over that amount of time, the witnesses had forgotten a lot.

[00:28:55]>> [music] >> The scientific investigations that were done back then were very superficial.

[00:29:02]Because the cause of death was listed as suicide.

[00:29:05]That's why the forensics team didn't look too closely at anything.

[00:29:11]>> All soldiers are watching during their military service. Their letters, their conversations, their contacts, everything they do is watched.

[00:29:24]His superiors and the officer of the intelligence service discovered that Joseph had a secret and was hiding a treasure. That's how he drew attention to himself.

[00:29:34]>> First, we had to find the witnesses, which was no simple matter.

[00:29:47]>> If I remember correctly, there were around 15 or 16 pieces.

[00:29:56]>> I remember larger objects and smaller ones.

[00:30:00]>> To be honest, I thought it was a fake, just worthless old stuff.

[00:30:12]>> You have to imagine the quarry as a mountain which they were exploiting from the top down. As they dug farther and farther down, the layers disappeared. On one plateau, which is no longer there, there was a hole, the ceiling of which fell in during the mining.

[00:30:28]>> Joseph Sümegh was able to go inside, and that's where he found the antique treasure.

[00:30:41]>> Scientific analysis Scientific analysis treasure was not covered in dirt, but was in the open air in a hole.

[00:30:54]>> Joseph couldn't take it all with him because there was too much.

[00:30:59]So he left some of it there, then asked for help and started hiding pieces in the cellar. That's where he was seen by several people.

[00:31:13]>> Some people had seen objects at his house, and others had seen them in the cellar.

[00:31:21]>> Some of the treasure was hidden in the cellar, which Joseph chose as his hiding spot for a reason. He knew no one would go there. It was already abandoned at the time.

[00:31:36]>> Not long after finding the treasure, he was called up for military service.

[00:31:41]And he undoubtedly took a few pieces to the barracks with him.

[00:31:46]>> Several witnesses said that Joseph wanted to sell part of it, but not in a single lot. He thought he would get more for it if he sold it by the piece.

[00:32:06]There was a flea market in Budapest, the Ecseri market.

[00:32:11]A lot of people sold black market items there.

[00:32:14]People on the wrong side of the law, small-time mafiosos.

[00:32:23]>> If Joseph wanted to sell the pieces to find someone to buy them, that was the place to go.

[00:32:31]>> Joseph Szumek took some of the treasure.

[00:32:33]We know for sure that he know for sure that he's sold some of the items there.

[00:32:42]>> When he was called up to join the military, the friends and family members who visited him all said that he seemed to be afraid of something and had become suspicious. Towards the end of his military service, his behavior had completely changed.

[00:32:58]>> Relatively speaking, many people knew Joseph had the objects in his possession.

[00:33:09]>> [music] >> Whenever we visited him, there was always someone with him listening in on our conversations.

[00:33:16]And he'd stay [clears throat] there for hours.

[00:33:21]>> When Joseph was on leave, he was often accompanied home by high-ranking officers. I noticed it because I was a soldier, too, but I never had an escort like that.

[00:33:33]>> When the [music] national police reinvestigated his Joseph Sumeg's death, they found, [music] quite categorically, that this was murder.

[00:33:45]>> According to the case file, we know that Joseph Sumeg arrived by train.

[00:33:54]He got off the train in Sekesfehervar and met up with two acquaintances of his. They went to a bar.

[00:34:05]From the bar, they left together for Polgardi. The three of them went down into the cellar together, Joseph and two unknown people.

[00:34:17]Three people went down into the cellar, but only two came out.

[00:34:24]The police didn't want to investigate the footprints, supposedly, because they weren't reliable.

[00:34:32]In my opinion, that the murder was not premeditated, but there must have been some sort of disagreement in the cellar about the objects, and Joseph must have been given a fatal blow.

[00:34:43]>> Some flex of blood being noticed on on the shirt and so on suggesting that Szumeg had been drugged before he was hung from this crossbeam by two military belts.

[00:34:57]>> [music] >> That's why the scene was made to look like a suicide.

[00:35:06]Joseph Szumeg was hanged with two Mikado military belts.

[00:35:10]Soldiers only wear one belt.

[00:35:14]That means that the other belt must have belonged to one of the two murderers.

[00:35:22]Whenever anything strange happened to anyone, they tried to hide it. Military institutions and commanders didn't want to have to deal with any problems.

[00:35:30]They'd call it a suicide and add a note saying the person seemed psychologically unstable. The case was rapidly closed.

[00:35:41]>> I think Joseph was killed for his treasure.

[00:35:57]>> Lebanon, Yugoslavia, and then subsequently Hungary served writs on Sotheby's on the basis of these three countries [music] claiming the silver as theirs.

[00:36:10]Sotheby's, if you like, as a [music] literally the physical possessor of it, and Lord Northampton being sued, and so everything was being prepared for litigation in New York over the title, the ownership of it.

[00:36:25]>> Um, New York. the trial in New York, the plaintiffs, which is to say Hungary, Croatia, and Lebanon, requested they be allowed to examine the treasure and analyze any residue that may have been present on the objects.

[00:36:42]>> The treasure was laid out for us all to examine in a 40-ft container in the loading dock of Sotheby's in New York.

[00:36:53]And there was a scientific team from each country.

[00:37:01]>> Lebanon pulled out at a fairly early stage, but after some preliminary meeting in New York.

[00:37:09]Because the soil samples just couldn't be made to correspond with anything in the Lebanon.

[00:37:14]They realized they weren't going to get anywhere.

[00:37:16]>> And of course, Hungary's case, the more he looked [music] into it, the stronger it became. And they were in it.

[00:37:25]>> The soil sample from the copper cauldron showed that this had at some point been in that wine cellar.

[00:37:34]>> During the analysis, they found the residue of a soil that matched the soil in the cave where Joseph's [music] body was found.

[00:37:47]The police noticed a hole that had been filled in.

[00:37:55]>> When the archaeologists began digging, they measured the hole to see if the cauldron would fit in it.

[00:38:03]They discovered that the cauldron fit perfectly inside the hole.

[00:38:12]>> It's quite clear.

[00:38:13]>> He has hidden the treasure in the same uh little building where he was found dead.

[00:38:24]>> There were of the samples all showed that the treasure could have been from the north of Lake Balaton, near Polgárdi and Sárvíz-Paty on.

[00:38:36]>> No such evidence it has to be said existed for the claim that this was found in Croatia.

[00:38:43]>> It was true scientific proof.

[00:38:50]>> The samples, the description of the object, the witnesses, its Pannonian origins, all the evidence pointed to the treasure coming from Hungary.

[00:39:03]>> But this proof was useless.

[00:39:05]The court refused to admit any of it as evidence.

[00:39:10]>> Proofs presented to this trial were not allowed.

[00:39:17]>> Supposedly, it was because the results of the analysis had arrived too late.

[00:39:23]>> They were not as able to deal with that legal hearing as was Lord Northampton who had a first-class legal team.

[00:39:33]>> The whole trial revolved around the idea that a respected, well-reputed member of the English aristocracy was being dragged in front of the court so Hungaria could steal his priceless treasure.

[00:39:48]>> The countries, [music] neither of them, satisfied the jury that they had evidence sufficient to say that silver was [music] discovered in our jurisdiction.

[00:39:56]>> The verdict was reckless and unfair.

[00:39:59]>> Which left Northampton with a possessory title.

[00:40:05]Lord Northampton was left with possession of the silver, costs of holding it, the costs of having invested in it, the costs of fighting an enormously expensive [music] legal battle in New York and all because he had taken the best advice [music] that was available from the best people.

[00:40:36]>> Lord Northampton megvásárolta.

[00:40:37]>> Lord Northampton started buying the objects in the 1980s.

[00:40:45]>> He is a very charming individual.

[00:40:49]He has a number of stately homes, Compton Wynyates, Castle Ashby, various estates both in this country and abroad.

[00:40:59]He's a well-established member of the aristocracy.

[00:41:05]He's no fool.

[00:41:06]At the same time, he's not an academic.

[00:41:11]He's not one of those aristocrats who builds up a magnificent collection of art to pass on to the family.

[00:41:21]>> Számára ez egy befektetés volt.

[00:41:22]>> It was just an investment made on the advice of someone who was uncontestably considered to be the greatest expert in the art trade.

[00:41:33]>> 4,200.

[00:41:34]At 4,200.

[00:41:36]>> [snorts] >> Lett a Wilson.

[00:41:37]>> Wilson was the president of Sotheby's.

[00:41:40]>> At 4,200.

[00:41:41]>> Bemutatták a Wilsonnak.

[00:41:42]>> He was the one who told Northampton the treasure came from Lena.

[00:41:45]That was more than enough of a guarantee for him to buy the objects with the intention of selling them again later.

[00:41:54]>> He had been advised by these people that he was making an investment, triple your money in 18 months.

[00:42:02]>> Lord Northampton biztosan tudta hogy >> Lord Northampton must have known the treasure had been illegally trafficked.

[00:42:10]>> Hogy honnan >> But he probably didn't know where it was from.

[00:42:14]>> tudomása Even less so that it was connected to crimes.

[00:42:29]After Sumeg's death, the objects were picked up and taken to the military barracks in the city of Pápa.

[00:42:38]At the same time, there was a subcontractor, a builder, who agreed to make the pieces disappear.

[00:42:49]He put the treasure in his Mercedes and took it to Budapest, where most of it was carried off in a diplomatic parcel with someone who had a diplomatic passport, all headed for Vienna.

[00:43:03]Halim Korban had an antique shop in Vienna.

[00:43:10]>> Korban was from Beirut. He had a diplomatic passport.

[00:43:15]Uh and he was working in Eastern Europe.

[00:43:19]And so, there were various sightings of this, and on borders, records of him having crossed between countries, between Hungary and Yugoslavia.

[00:43:29]>> He entered the country twice. Once when József was still alive and once around the time he died.

[00:43:40]>> Halim Korban [music] hand-carried back into London from Vienna the Sevso hunting plate.

[00:43:49]And it was [music] purchased immediately.

[00:43:53]We can be very exact about when that hunting plate was in London.

[00:43:59]And within 3 days of Halim Korban having brought it to London, József Sumeg was found dead in the wine cellar.

[00:44:09]Ultimately, we established that the story of it originating in Yugoslavia was the cover [music] story provided by Halim Corbin.

[00:44:24]Yugoslavia didn't give export licenses and there was a prohibition on their cultural heritage leaving the country.

[00:44:33]So, clearly, you couldn't sell it on with a story it had been found in Yugoslavia. That immediately said this is an illicit exportation.

[00:44:44]One country that did issue [music] export licenses, however, was the Lebanon.

[00:44:49]And conveniently, Halim Corbin [music] is Lebanese.

[00:44:52]So, he was asked to get some export [music] licenses.

[00:45:04]>> As I guess >> What's certain is that you can't get a property title for a stolen object in London. So, Lord Northampton could not be named the official owner of the objects.

[00:45:18]>> Now, this comes into another very interesting area.

[00:45:22]The legality of it. If Northampton then could he then go ahead and sell the silver?

[00:45:27]No, he couldn't.

[00:45:29]>> He had the right to conservation. He had the objects in his possession and could transfer that right to conservation to Hungary.

[00:45:47]>> I >> I went to see the minister and told him that the police investigation was over.

[00:45:53]The archaeologist and the minister had closed [clears throat] the case and put the files in the basement and the treasure was still in England. I asked him to do >> Tell you what to do.

[00:46:10]>> Viktor Orbán was very familiar with the treasure because his father, Győző Orbán, was a foreman at the same quarry.

[00:46:19]>> [music] >> So, the Orbán family knew all about the existence of a Roman treasure, and then it had come from Hungarian soil.

[00:46:29]He was aware of it and thought the country should reclaim its cultural heritage.

[00:46:37]So, negotiations began.

[00:46:41]>> In two parts In 2014 and 2017, the Hungarian government finally reached an agreement with the owners of the treasure.

[00:46:52]>> We don't know the details, and we don't know what's in the contract because it's confidential.

[00:46:59]>> It was organized so and officially that Hungary didn't buy the treasure from these persons, but paid a compensation.

[00:47:13]>> Hungary paid compensation because the owners had invested a certain amount of money in the treasure.

[00:47:20]>> Hungary may not buy this treasure because it means [music] that we step back from our co-ownership position.

[00:47:39]>> [music] >> We made two payments, one large and one small.

[00:47:43]The two purchases of the treasure cost Hungary approximately 36 million euros.

[00:47:58]>> It was on those two dates that the English authorities decided to let the treasure leave the country.

[00:48:06]It was an indirect recognition of Hungary's ownership of the treasure.

[00:48:16]Everyone gave up their demands.

[00:48:18]No one contested Hungary's right to the treasure.

[00:48:23]>> We paid a lot of money, but at the end the treasure is in Hungary.

[00:48:30]>> It has always been very important to Hungary to bring the treasure back to our own soil and make it a national treasure.

[00:48:39]>> And this whole story, that's the most important result for me.

[00:48:43]That's where I stopped. As soon as it became obvious that the treasure had only one possible path ahead of it, one that would lead it back to Hungary, that meant I had accomplished my mission.

[00:49:06]>> The inhabitants of Polgárdi, friends of József Sümegh, who had seen the treasure, say there were more than 40 pieces.

[00:49:15]There are two or three pieces I remember very well.

[00:49:18]I'm sure they were in our home.

[00:49:20]But unfortunately, he sold them at the Ecseri flea market for next to nothing.

[00:49:26]>> We had that one, the one in the middle.

[00:49:30]>> Show me which one.

[00:49:32]>> The one in the middle there.

[00:49:37]They all say that there were at least two copper cauldrons and at least 40 pieces. So, there are definitely more pieces somewhere.

[00:49:46]>> I had the opportunity to touch a few objects and read them and clean them off.

[00:49:52]You clean them with sandpaper? Yes.

[00:49:54][music] It was a bit rough, but I did.

[00:50:04]>> Some friends [music] of Seuso described one or two vessels they are missing.

[00:50:11]The 14 items are only a part of the Seuso treasure.

[00:50:17]>> There are undoubtedly more pieces [music] of the Seuso silver out there somewhere.

[00:50:24]>> Halim Korban >> [music] >> in Wien wrote a letter to Lord Northampton and one year later he sold the first items [music] to him that please I have some other things more than 200 pieces.

[00:50:41]>> There are indications in the paperwork that we received, particularly generated by Halim Korban, and being very specific as to the number of spoons and cups and bowls.

[00:50:54]What became of those objects?

[00:50:56]>> We are waiting for the second part of the Seuso treasure.

[00:51:05]>> Our Seuso treasure >> pieces of the Seuso treasure must be hidden somewhere.

[00:51:12]>> We don't know if there are any still left in Hungary.

[00:51:19]>> [music] >> Some of it >> is still underground, still hidden somewhere.

[00:51:23]Another part is hidden in private collections both in Hungary and abroad.

[00:51:29]>> It's an extremely confusing case, not least because the people who were orchestrating [music] its route to market were people who understood that market better than most.

[00:51:42]And who [music] therefore um built in Do you understand I mean by cul-de-sacs.

[00:51:50]The no through roads, you know, blind alleys. And they they built these [music] all the way along to confuse and to cover their tracks.

[00:52:03]>> I'm optimistic. I'm sure that new Roman objects will appear in connection to the Sevso treasure soon.