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Stolen 16th-Century Miniatures
Returned to German Library

Seven 16th-century miniature paintings worth up to $500,000 were sent on their way back to the University of Kassel Library in Germany May 15 in a ceremony at the German consulate in Boston, 53 years after they were pilfered from a German mineshaft where they had been stored to protect them from bombing.

The value of the paintings was established by a Brookline rug dealer, Thomas P. Chatalbash, who bought them for $200 and launched a legal battle to claim rightful ownership. However, an elderly man from Connecticut, William A. Braemer, admitted in a sworn affidavit that he had stolen the paintings in 1945 and later sold them for $100, putting an end to Chatalbash's claim.

Posted May 25, 1998.

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