Ancient artefacts sent from Israel to the US four years ago on a short-term basis and intended for display at a White House event have ended up at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, according to a report.
The Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Tuesday that antiquities including ancient ceramic oil lamps, part of Israel’s national treasures collection, were shipped to Washington DC with the approval of the then director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, Israel Hasson, for use in a Hanukah candle-lighting event at the White House. The event took place in December 2019, when Trump was in office.
In the end, the oil lamps were not displayed due to US concerns that they may have been taken from the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The antiquities authority’s plan to have the clay candelabra returned via a special courier was disrupted, however, by the outbreak of Covid-19 in early 2020. The pandemic resulted in the artefacts getting “stuck” in the US, since officials did not want to risk using regular shipping channels to return the treasures.
Hasson told Haaretz that Saul Fox, a major American Jewish donor to the antiquities authority who attended the 2019 Hanukah celebration with Trump, was asked to take care of the items until they could be returned safely.
But Israeli officials recently learned that the antiquities eventually ended up at the former president’s Florida estate, which made headlines this year after an FBI raid of the premises revealed boxes full of classified documents were being stored in bathrooms and other spaces after being improperly removed from the White House when Trump left office.
It is not clear how the artefacts ended up at Mar-a-Lago, or whether Trump is aware they are on the premises. Haaretz reported that efforts by senior Israeli officials to retrieve the national treasures have so far failed. A source updated on the affair told Haaretz he would not be surprised if “the items Israel seeks are also eventually found in some bathroom there”.
The current director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, Eli Eskozido, said he had contacted the Israeli foreign affairs ministry, the strategic affairs minister, Ron Dermer, and the former US ambassador to Israel David Friedman asking for their help in retrieving the items from Mar-a-Lago, but without success.
On Tuesday, an Israeli official briefed on the matter described it as “a misunderstanding” and said the antiquities authority “woke up too late” to the problem.
