ROYAL GERMAN TREASURE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20131, 17 December 1928, Page 9

ROYAL GERMAN TREASURE.

HOARD OF THE GUELPHS. AMERICAN SYNDICATE'S OFFER. Tho Prussian Government was Jatcly making a strong last-minute effort to save for Germany the famous medieval treasure hoard of tho Guelphs, tho former ruling house of Brunswick and llanover, with which tho British Iloyal Family is connected by close ties of relationship. It is stated that the present Duko of Brunswick, the last direct descendant of this ancient house, whose history dates back; to Jjeforc the times of Charles the Great, is negotiating through Herr Glueckselig, the noted Vienna art dealer, the sale to America of the priceless relics pf tho Middle Ages and the Renaissance accumulated by tho family in tho course of more than 1000 years. The duko lias issued a statement in which ho avers that tho action of tho Prussian Government in withholding from him the shrunken romnant of his family fortune has placed liim in tho dilemma of having either to sell these art treasures or to Stop the pensions of tho many officials and retainers attached to tho House of Brunswick. lie says he is ready to sacrifice tho troasura rather than doprivp those trusty sorvants and officials of the annuities darned by them in long years of loyal sorvicc.

The price offered by the Amorican syndicate with whom Heir Gluecksclig is negotiating is stated to be £2,000,000. Heir Noske, Governor of the province of Hanover, is how trying to raise by means of private subscription and with the help of a State grant, £750,000, a sum sufficient tp purchase at least a part, of these relics which are so' intimately bound up with the history of Germany. ■t One of the most highly-priced objects in. the collection is a "magic" chest which was taken to Brunswick in 1173 by the Crusader Henry*the Lion, from a pilgrimage to the Sepulchre, i In 1803 the Guelph treasure was talfen tq England in order to prevent it falling into the hands of Napoleon by King George 111. of England, who was also' Elector of Hanover and the head of the Guelph family. The treasure was returned after the battle of Waterloo to Hanover, where it was placed in a special museum of its own.