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

DATE: SUNDAY, June 24, 1990                   TAG: 9006280442
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: DALLAS                                LENGTH: Short

CHURCH'S LAWYERS SUE FOR ART

Lawyers of the Church of Quedlinburg have charged in U.S. District Court that minutes before a judge ordered that stolen church artworks not be moved, there was suspicious activity at the bank vault where they are stored.

The lawyers, representing the East German church in its suit to regain the artworks, said Friday that an unidentified person entered the vault at the First Interstate Bank of Texas in Dallas, where some of the artworks are on deposit, and placed items in a newly rented safe deposit box there.

The church also asserted in a motion filed Friday that Jane Meador Cook, sister of the late Joe T. Meador, the man who is believed to have stolen the treasures from their hiding place in a mine shaft shortly after American troops occupied Quedlinburg in 1945, entered the same bank vault and removed objects while discussions to regain the art from the family were in progress.

After the discussions broke down, the church filed suit on Monday.

by CNB