Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 15, 1990 TAG: 9006150370
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: HOUSTON LENGTH: Medium
His name was Joe T. Meador, by all accounts a quiet, unassuming man who served honorably in World War II and ended his service stationed in what is now East Germany in 1945. His unit was in charge of guarding a mine shaft that contained some of the world's most valuable art objects, hidden there at the time for safekeeping.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and a West German investigator are now looking to a bank vault in Meador's hometown of Whitewright, with its population of 1,800, as the place where the treasures might at last be recovered.
"I am going to Texas to try to put some more nails in some coffins," Willi Korte, the German investigator, said in a telephone interview. "I have been to Whitewright before, and it wasn't because AAA recommended it."
The first break in the case occurred last April, when, for a $3 million "finder's fee," one of the missing works was returned to a West German foundation, with the stipulation that the names of the sellers, as well as the name of the lawyer who negotiated the deal, would never be revealed.
At the time the deal was cut for the artwork - a ninth-century jewel-encrusted, illustrated manuscript of the Four Gospels - a spokesman for the foundation said the manuscript was taken to Texas by an American G.I. at the end of the war. That, and other treasures, were hidden in the mine shaft near Quedlinburg, a medieval castle town in Saxony-Anhault Province.
The arrangement for the manuscript was carried out in Switzerland, where such sales are protected by law.
A lengthy report in the New York Times Thursday pointed to Meador as the thief and his heirs as the people who arranged the sale of the manuscript. Numerous calls to the relatives elicited a string of "no comments." The lawyer named as the intermediary in the transaction, John S. Torigian, left word that he would be taking depositions for the rest of the week.
The president of the bank, where the remainder of the treasures are purportedly being kept, also would not discuss the matter.
FBI agent Mike Satimauro of the Dallas office said the matter was now under investigation.
"We're intent on getting a better handle on what's supposed to be missing," he said. "We're trying to see if we do, in fact, have stolen articles, and if we do, we will do our best to get them back."
Meanwhile, the town of Whitewright went into an absolute swoon Thursday. Television crews in helicopters flashed overhead, and the telephones never seemed to stop ringing.
"This has thrown us into an uproar," said Mayor Clarence Tillett. "The whole town will be talking about this for some time to come. There's 1,800 people here, and people usually know what's going on with everyone else in town. But I can tell you, all of us were surprised about this news about Joe Meador."
by CNB