With the US Supreme Court's verdict in favor of Iran in the case of ancient Persian artifacts held by a Chicago museum, the process of their return to the country will soon be initiated.
The court ruled on Wednesday that the American victims of a 1997 bombing in Beit-ul-Moqaddas cannot satisfy a $71.5 million court judgment against Iran by seizing and selling the ancient Iranian antiquities.
Ali Asghar Mounesan, the head of Iran's Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization, referred to the court's judgment as a huge victory achieved through Iran's diplomatic attempts, IRNA reported.
"After years of efforts, Iran's tactful policies finally paved the way for Achaemenid tablets' reclamation," he said.
According to the official, a valuable collection of ancient relics were unearthed during a joint excavation project at Persepolis in 1933.
Achaemenid tablets, along with a set of other antiquities, were among the items owned by Iran, which Chicago University's Oriental Institute borrowed for three years to conduct detailed studies.
However, "after three years, the return of the collection faced difficulties".
Following Iranian authorities' attempts, part of the collection, that contained more than 30,000 tablets according to an ISNA report, were transferred back to Iran in three rounds in 1948, 1971 and 2004. But a number of tablets could not be reclaimed due to a lawsuit against Iran.
Several of those injured in the 1997 bombing alleged that Iran had provided material for the attackers and filed a lawsuit, to which the court agreed and awarded them $71.5 million.
As Iran refused to pay, the plaintiffs targeted the ancient relics on loan to the Oriental Institute since 1937 to obtain the compensation.
"ICHHTO immediately set to hire a local lawyer to pursue the matter after negotiations with the Foreign Ministry, the Center for International Legal Affairs and the National Security Council," Mounesan said.
Iran's selected lawyer drew on the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act to prove that the tablets must be immune from seizure.
The country also sought recourse to the right of amicus curiae (literally friend of the count, meaning someone who is not a party to a case and is not solicited by a party, but who assists a court by offering information that bears on the case) in recent years to win the case.
"Reliable history institutes and renowned world experts of the field were asked to offer their opinion on whether or not historical property can be involved in personal affairs," Ebrahim Shaqaqi, director for legal affairs at ICHHTO, was quoted as saying by ISNA.
Wednesday's 8-0 ruling of the US Supreme Court prevents the seizure of the relics.
The decision could make it harder for plaintiffs in other cases arising from militant attacks overseas to seek compensation by seizing and selling off cultural relics owned by foreign countries, Reuters reported.
The Persepolis tablets date back to the kingdom of Darius between 509 and 494 BC and many of them are inscribed with Elamite writing considered to be some of the oldest in the world.
Unlike most retrieved Achaemenid inscriptions, these clay tablets do not contain official announcements for the public, but were rather accounts of financial affairs such as trade of goods and wages.
This collection can render valuable information about people's everyday life in the Achaemenid period.
