25 years after being stolen, clocks returned to J'lem museum

Artifacts stolen during famous 1983 break-in to Museum of Islamic Art found in two French banks' vaults

Forty-three antique clocks, which were stolen from the Museum for Islamic Art in Jerusalem 25 years ago, were located in the vaults of two French banks in recent weeks. The clocks will be returned to the museum soon.

 

In April 1983 the Museum for Islamic Art was broken into and 100 priceless clocks, which were then estimated to be worth about 200 million old shekels, were stolen. The police have been unable to catch the thieves and the items have not been found.

Coming home (Photo: Israel Police)

 

In October, the police finally declared that they have solved the case, and identified the man behind the sophisticated burglary as Naaman Lidor (Diller), who passed away several years before.

 

In August 2006, a Tel Aviv lawyer contacted the museum and offered to sell them some of the stolen clocks. The museum did not report of the proposal to the police, and began negotiating the return of the items. Eventually, 40 clocks were handed back to the museum in exchange for NIS 150,000 (some $37,600).

 

The police first found out about the return of the stolen artifacts in June 2007, and decided to launch a renewed investigation into the affair. In the course of the investigation, a warehouse where another part of the clocks were kept has been located.