Israel Museum Negotiates Restitution of Ancient Medallions

JERUSALEM—The Israel Museum announced that it has compensated a Polish noble family for two 1,700-year-old medallions in its collection that were originally seized by the Nazis during World War II, the Associated Press reports. A third medallion has been returned to the family.

Of the two medallions that will remain in the museum, one was purchased by the institution itself, while a donor purchased the second and gave it to the museum on long-term loan. Both depict lions of Judah and seven-branched candelabras and, according to Israel Museum director James Snyder, are among the earliest artifacts found outside Israel that depict Jewish temple imagery. Prices of the sales were not divulged.

The three medallions were originally part of the collection of Countess Isbella Dzialynska from the 1800s. The Nazis seized the collection after their invasion of Poland, and it was then looted and scattered once the Nazis were defeated. Dzialynska's heirs negotiated the present restitution with representation by the London-based Commission for Looted Art in Europe.