CNG Keystone 3

Just received this email from CNG. Pretty crazy! Feel bad for all the work CNG put into this auction only for this unexpected bad news to crop up. Glad they’re doing the right thing though. Definitely intriguing how the coins ended up as part of the sellers collection in the first place

Dear Restitutor:

CNG is cancelling our feature auction Keystone 3, which was to take place this Wednesday, February 17. During the past week we have been in conversations with Yale University about select coins in this sale. It appears that six coins in Keystone 3 came from an excavation sponsored by Yale University at Dura-Europos between 1928 and 1937. We believe these coins are the property of Yale University.

Further discussions with Yale indicate that other coins in the Keystone 3 sale may also have originated from the Yale collections. The university did de-accession duplicate coins from its collections over a period of time during the mid-20th century, but Yale believes that the coins in the Keystone sale were not part of their formal de-accessioning.

As a result of discussions between Classical Numismatic Group and Yale University, we have reached an agreement whereby the coins will be returned to Yale. CNG has offered Yale assistance in cataloging the coins.

We know that many bidders have worked hard at putting together bids for this auction. We truly apologize to you for your effort. At the end of the day, after all information was evaluated, we reached a cordial agreement with Yale and believe that we made the correct decision.

We sincerely thank all of our bidders for their understanding.

Sincerely,

Mike Gasvoda

Managing Director

CNG LLC

 

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Thanks for sharing. I didn't get the email.
Huge bummer. There were some wonderful RRs in there that I was watching.
What the heck is Yale going to do with them? Put them back in storage in their leaky basement?
I wonder if the seller (or whomever, supposedly, lifted these coins from Yale) will face charges?

 

Were these missing coins the result of a recorded theft(s)? ...or were they simply not delivered by the sponsored event? (rhetorical question). It would be interesting to know the time span between the coins going missing and their rediscovery...and how they may have gotten from Point "A" to Point "Z".

Update: I went online to see if there were any news stories about this cancelled auction. The only reference to "Yale" and "Coin" talked about Yale's recent sale of a Brasher Doubloon. Which led directly to this 1947 movie entitled "The Brasher Doubloon"...

 

There are coins posted now on the CNG site under the title of Keystone and all show an estimation of $5. Are these the same coins that were previously listed as this sale? Some are somewhat overpriced at $5 (in particular one broken into several pieces that is misidentified as an Alexandria mint Septimius). I know CNG knows how to tell the difference. Was there something special about this sale that got it posted in the center panel of the CNG site? Was this sale cataloged by the previous owner something like the AK collection lots?

 

Sounds like a mea culpa by Yale. They (Yale) believe the coins are theirs???
I posit they decided to sell some coins and now see prices much greater than what they received. Shame, shame, shame.

 

It sure sounds like CNG and Yale both believe that the collector, whose collection was being sold in the Keystone auction, acquired some of the coins from Yale inappropriately or illegally.

I'm not sure how else to interpret the phrase "not part of their formal de-accessioning".

 

That was my same understanding when I read the e-mail. Unless there is some sort of litigation between Yale and the collector and CNG simply decided to stay out.

 

Hi All,

Another scenario is that someone at Yale “borrowed” the coins and no one was the wiser till the coins showed up for sale later. The borrower may not be the seller, just the recipient of “lost” items.

- Broucheion

 

I got the same email. Certainly mysterious.

 

Thank you for posting the email as I didn't receive it directly from CNG; I think I need to update my email preferences with them. I tried to check my bids this morning and was curious why the sale just disappeared into thin air. I noted that a number of the coins openly mentioned that they were from the Yale collection so if there was anything shady in their acquisition, I don't think the current seller was aware of it.

 

I’ll ask Yale University to lend me some coins of theirs, I won’t sell them for sure...

 

If you looked closely at the coins in the sale almost all of them had the place the coins were purchased and the price noted on the collector tag. The prices were such that I imagine the coins were purchased pre-1950s. My guess is this sale was part of an estate sale of a collector who is now deceased. That collector seems to have purchased the coins and would have had nothing to do with acquiring them from Yale.

If Yale can only prove that 6 coins were part of their excavation then they should only have received 6 coins from the sale. Even for those 6, are we really to believe that Yale has kept good enough records for 90 years that they can prove they didn’t sell or trade them legitimately? Is there a police report or record on file of a theft? That is what a private citizen would need to provide in such a case to get their coins back. I feel bad for the family of the collector who might be getting the raw end of the deal just because the institution making the complaint is Yale. The irony is that if you or I tried to donate better coins than these Yale would probably refuse to take them.

 

From how I read their email, it looks like some of the coins from the sale may have been acquired illegally from Yale around 60+ years ago. Good thing that Yale and their $30 billion endowment decided to step in and pressure CNG to make sure that these coins will be enjoyed by no one and returned to a dark storage area in Yale’s archives.

 

I'm waiting for Greece and Italy to stake a claim for the coins since they likely originated in their territories.

 

Are you suggesting a rich and powerful institution such as Yale would live by the "rules for thee but not for me" standard!?

 

I do hope that at some point we see some additional evidence as to how Yale determined these coins were or were not ones sold, were not intended to be sold, and were absolutely stolen rather than victims of bad recordkeeping. Many of the coins in this sale were unlikely to have been photographed for sale at the time due to their condition, which while respectable was not quite "1950s photo worthy".

I wonder if the collector was duped by an employee of the school who was selling things on the side? Given that a handful of coins specifically listed their provenance as "Yale" I can't imagine a collector would have written that if he knew they were stolen.

 

It reminds me a case involving CNG in 2006 in Britain: the Greek government filed a claim for the recovery of an EID MAR denarius sold by a German coin dealer (notorious for trafficking looted treasures) to the auction house. The coin in question was from Greek origin. CNG held it for 11 months instead of selling the coin, which it could have done under British law, and finally the Court asked them to give it back, and that’s what they did without protest.

 

What's the matter, @Ryro, did you go to Harvard or something? I'll have you know that although I have degrees from both institutions, I went to Yale first and Yale has my primary loyalty. When I was an undergraduate there, given the eccentric child I was, I spent an inordinate amount of time, when I wasn't exploring the stacks of the library, exploring the basements and even the steam tunnels with a group of like-minded friends. And I can tell you that they don't leak!

Furthermore, for those of you who like to make the easy assumption that "oh, it's an institution, so of course they relegate their coin collection to the basement," the 120,000-object Yale numismatic collection -- including the coins from Dura Europos -- is actually kept in the Pratt Study Room for Numismatics in the very fantastic Yale Art Gallery. See https://artgallery.yale.edu/numismatics-room. If any of you ever happens to pass through New Haven, the Art Gallery is very much worth a visit -- arguably the best museum between New York and Boston.

 

I would argue that if the coins (like any other artifact) were recorded to be part of a museum's or university's collection and are found in private hands, it's not the institution's obligation to prove that they didn't sell them -- i.e., to prove a negative. It's the current holder's obligation to prove a legitimate chain of title. The same as any painting or other art object from a museum's collection that turns up elsewhere. .

 

Ditto. I had the same thought. Maybe some curator or other Yale employee was selling coins through unapproved channels, maybe for illicit gain or perhaps even to raise funds for purchasing other coins for the Yale collection. But if the sale were not properly approved by the University, it would still be illigitmate.