The Jewish Claims Conference agreed to cede ownership of a collection of antiquities to the Leipzig museum that has housed them for 80 years, ending a dispute with the grandson of Georg Steindorff, the Nazi-era owner.
After winning a 16-year legal battle against Leipzig University to secure the 163 artifacts, the Claims Conference said today that the collection will remain where it is. A Berlin court ruled on May 26 that the sale was made under duress and thus invalid. It ordered the collection to be transferred to the Claims Conference -- against the wishes of the heir.

The 16-year legal battle pitted Leipzig University and Steindorff heir Thomas Hemer against the Jewish Claims Conference, which filed a claim for the collection after German unification in 1990. In a restitution case that confounds conventions, the Claims Conference is now legal owner of the antiquities, overriding the wishes of the Steindorff heir.

The University of Leipzig is to lose an ancient Egyptian collection which it bought in 1936 from a Jewish professor, Georg Steindorff, a court ruled Thursday. A court in Berlin decided that the collection must be handed to the Jewish Claims Conference (JCC), as Steindorff had sold it for a value far below its actual worth.