The Quedlinburg church treasure, taken in 1945

In April 1945, within days of US troops taking Quedlinburg, church officials found that boxes of treasure had been broken open. The town is now in Saxony-Anhalt, in Germany. The New York Times gives 18 April as the day it fell, and the church gives 19 April. The treasure belonged to the collegiate church of St Servatius. In 1943 it had been moved to a mine for safety. The US Army was guarding it when the objects went missing. The church and The Art Newspaper count twelve objects lost. The New York Times, in 1994, gave ten.

Among the missing pieces were the Samuhel Gospels, a gospel book with a jewelled binding. The court record and the Texas State Historical Association date it to the 9th century. Church officials reported the loss to the US Army in June 1945. The Texas State Historical Association says the inquiry found nothing and was dropped in 1949.

The thief was named 45 years later. On 14 June 1990 the journalist William Honan reported in The New York Times that the treasure had surfaced in Whitewright, Texas. He named Lt Joe Tom Meador, a US Army officer from the town. Meador had sent packages home in 1945. His letters, one dated 17 June 1945, asked whether they had arrived. A US appeals court, the Fifth Circuit, later wrote that by his letters the packages held at least two of the missing items. The Texas State Historical Association says he left the army in 1946 and ran the family hardware store. He died in 1980. He was never charged.

His brother Jack Meador and his sister Jane Meador Cook inherited the objects. The Art Newspaper and the court record say they tried to sell them. The Samuhel Gospels were sold in 1990 to the Kulturstiftung der Länder, a German cultural foundation, through the heirs’ lawyer, John Torigian of Houston. Willi Korte, a German researcher, traced the other pieces to Whitewright. The Texas State Historical Association says they lay in a bank vault there. The church sued in a Dallas federal court on 18 June 1990.

The parties announced a settlement on 7 January 1991. The New York Times reported in 1996 that the Meadors were paid $2.75 million. The Texas State Historical Association says this total includes the earlier payments for the Gospels. The sources do not agree fully on how the payments added up. The agreement was signed on 26 February 1992, and the other pieces reached Germany that April. The whole treasury was shown in Berlin from 31 October 1992 to 27 June 1993. It went back on view in Quedlinburg on 19 September 1993.

A criminal case followed. On 4 January 1996 a federal grand jury in Texas indicted Jack Meador, Jane Meador Cook and Torigian for conspiracy and for receiving and selling stolen goods. The Meadors pleaded not guilty on 25 January. On 22 October 1996 Judge Paul N. Brown dismissed every count, because the indictment came one day after the time limit had run. The Fifth Circuit upheld the dismissal on 13 April 1998. No one was tried or convicted. Torigian’s lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, said the case was weak and that his client was innocent. On 20 April 2000 the heirs settled a tax claim from the Internal Revenue Service for $135,000, The New York Times reported.

The treasury is again at St Servatius, which shows about 63 objects. Two small pieces are still missing. The church names a rock-crystal flask and a reliquary cross. The Art Newspaper named a carved reliquary and an enamelled cross in 1996.