
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, June 15, 1990                   TAG: 9006150261
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WHITEWRIGHT, TEXAS                                LENGTH: Short

GERMAN CHURCH SEEKS RETURN OF TREASURES

The church of Quedlinburg in East Germany - whose medieval treasures appear to have surfaced in this small farm town in north-central Texas nearly a half-century after they disappeared from their wartime hiding place - has retained two lawyers to seek the return of the priceless artworks.

Willi A. Korte, a West German government official who specializes in the repatriation of cultural property, and Thomas R. Kline, of the law firm Andrews & Kurth of Washington and Dallas, said they would fly to Dallas today to negotiate with the family of Joe T. Meador, a former Army officer who died here in 1980 and who is thought to have carried off one of the major art thefts of the century.

Asked if he was prepared to pay ransom for the objects, Korte said, "I'm prepared to listen to their suggestions, but am not authorized to spend a great deal of money in the settlement."

- The New York Times

by CNB