# The Sevso Treasure > Late Roman silversmiths, workshops unidentified - Late fourth or early fifth century AD > Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/artworks/late-roman-silver-workshops/sevso-treasure/ > Published by Servola Systems GmbH. Last verified: 2026-08-13 ## Tombstone - **Artist:** Late Roman silversmiths, workshops unidentified - **Date:** Late fourth or early fifth century AD - **Medium:** Silver, partly gilt, with engraving, repousse and niello; buried in a copper alloy cauldron - **Dimensions:** Fourteen vessels; the Hunting Plate about 70 cm in diameter and close to 9 kg; the Achilles Plate about 72 cm across; the Meleager Plate close to 70 cm - **Object type:** Antiquity - **Period:** Late Roman, fourth to fifth century - **Current location:** Hungarian National Museum, Budapest - **Attribution:** workshop ## Summary Fourteen pieces of late Roman silver and the copper cauldron they were buried in, weighing between them more than most surviving Roman hoards, and carrying on the largest plate a hexameter couplet naming an owner, Sevso, whom no other document mentions. The same plate labels a lake in its hunting scene PELSO, the Roman name for Lake Balaton, which is why a Hungarian scholar who saw it in 1984 knew where it came from.It is the best documented provenance forgery in the antiquities market, and the documentation exists because the forgery was bought twice. Lebanese export licences produced in 1981 were found to be forged by the J. Paul Getty Museum in March 1984; a second set was commissioned in 1985 at a cost of 628,000 pounds in expenses, and a third in 1987 for a further 460,000 dollars. Sotheby's announced the sale in New York on 10 February 1990 at an estimate of 40 to 70 million dollars. It was never sold. Lebanon sued within five days, the silver was impounded, and no hammer ever fell.Three states claimed it. A New York jury in November 1993 found that neither Hungary nor Croatia had proved ownership, without ever ruling that the Marquess of Northampton had good title, and without hearing the soil comparisons, the police file or the Polgardi silver stand that Hungary had assembled. Hungary got the silver back anyway, twenty-one and twenty-four years later, by paying 15 million euros and then 28 million euros in two private transactions the Hungarian state calls compensation rather than purchase. The find-spot has still never been established by any court. ## Provenance Every link carries a grade. `documented` means a cited source supports it, `disputed` means the identification is argued but not established, `unknown` means we have no owner for that span and have not bridged it. - **Late 4th or early 5th century AD** Sevso, otherwise unrecorded `[documented]` (origin) The Hunting Plate names its owner in a hexameter couplet and marks him a Christian with a Chi-Rho. No other source of any kind mentions a Sevso. The name is the only thing known about him; his rank, office and dates are inferred from the weight and quality of the silver alone. - **-c. 1975-1978** Buried, find-spot never judicially established `[unknown]` (gap) THE UNGRADED LINK, AND IT IS THE WHOLE CASE. Hungary says Polgardi, sixteen kilometres east of Lake Balaton, on the strength of the PELSO inscription, the 1878 Koszarhegy quadripus, comparative soil and silver analysis and the pit in the wine cellar that the copper cauldron fits. Croatia says Barbariga in Istria near Pula, citing its own soil analysis. Lebanon said Tyre and Sidon on documents later proved forged. A New York jury in 1993 found that neither Hungary nor Croatia had proved its case, on a record from which Hungary's physical evidence had been excluded. No court has ever found where this treasure came out of the ground. - **c. 1975-1978-1980** Jozsef Sumegh (alleged) `[disputed]` (discovery) Sumegh, a twenty-four-year-old coin and antiquities collector from the Polgardi district, was said locally to have found a large silver treasure before beginning compulsory military service. He was found hanging in a wine cellar in December 1980. The death was recorded as suicide and later reinvestigated as murder; the file is open. The connection to the treasure rests on the pit in the cellar floor and the cauldron that fits it, not on any admission, sale record or witness to the find itself. - **by 1980-1980-1981** Anton Tkalec, Halim Korban and Mansur Mokhtarzade `[documented]` (trade) By 1980 the Vienna-based dealer Anton Tkalec controlled some or all of the material. The Lebanese dealer Halim Korban and the London dealer Mansur Mokhtarzade were in the chain. Korban obtained the first Lebanese export permit in June 1981, after the selling had begun, and the J. Paul Getty Museum established in March 1984 that its authorising signatures were forged and that Korban was not a dealer registered with the Lebanese authorities. - **1980-1982** Art Consultancy Ltd, Guernsey, owned by Peter Wilson and Rainer Zietz `[documented]` (purchase) Peter Wilson had retired as chairman of Sotheby's shortly before. Recorded purchases: geometric ewer 48,000 pounds, November 1980; Hunting Plate 225,000 pounds, November 1980 to January 1981; Achilles Plate 525,000 pounds, May 1981; geometric plate 180,000 pounds, September 1981; Hippolytus situla 525,000 pounds, December 1981. These are private transaction prices, not auction results. - **1982-1987** The Abraham Trust `[documented]` (settlement into trust) Formed 15 September 1982 on the suggestion of the solicitor Peter Mimpriss, who acted for both Wilson and the Marquess of Northampton. It took the eight pieces Wilson and Zietz held plus two more that Northampton bought for 500,000 pounds. In 1985 Mimpriss approached Ramiz Rizk for replacement Lebanese documentation at 628,000 pounds in expenses, the first set having been exposed as forged the year before. - **1987-2014 and 2017** The Marquess of Northampton 1987 Settlement Trust `[documented]` (acquisition and consolidation) In 1987 Northampton bought four further pieces from Korban and Tkalec for a combined 8.7 million dollars, with export permits obtained through Rizk for a further 460,000 dollars, and the 1987 Settlement Trust became sole owner. The trust, not the man, was the defendant in New York. After the failed Bonhams viewing in October 2006 the hoard was divided into two parts, one remaining with Northampton and one passing to or remaining with the heirs of Peter Wilson. - **1990-1994** Impounded under order of the New York State Supreme Court `[documented]` (litigation) Lebanon sued on 15 February 1990; a temporary restraining order followed on 20 February and the treasure was impounded in March. Lebanon abandoned its claim on the eve of trial once the export licences were shown to be forged. After a seven-week trial from September 1993 the jury rejected the Hungarian and Croatian claims. The Appellate Division affirmed in 1994 and the silver went back to London. - **2014-present** Hungarian State, Hungarian National Museum, Budapest `[documented]` (acquisition, first tranche) Seven silver pieces and the copper cauldron, including the Hunting Plate, the geometric plate, both geometric ewers, the basin, the casket and the Dionysiac ewer. Acquired in spring 2014 from a trust benefiting the two sons of Peter Wilson, not from the Marquess of Northampton, a distinction most accounts miss. Unveiled in the Hungarian Parliament building by Viktor Orban and Jozsef Palinkas and moved to the Hungarian National Museum in July 2014. The sum is given as 15 million euros by the holding museum, which calls it a compensation fee rather than a purchase price, and as a 20.7 million dollar retention fee by Artnet News reporting The Art Newspaper. - **2017-present** Hungarian State, Hungarian National Museum, Budapest `[documented]` (acquisition, second tranche) The remaining seven pieces, held by the Marquess of Northampton: the Achilles and Meleager plates, the animal-decorated ewer, the Dionysiac amphora and the three vessels of the Hippolytus set. Repatriated in summer 2017 and announced on 12 July, presented in the Hungarian Parliament building and afterwards toured before joining the rest at the Hungarian National Museum. 28 million euros, making 43 million euros for both tranches. Described by the Hungarian side as compensation to family foundations for relinquishing the treasure rather than as a purchase, a distinction that preserves Hungary's position that the holders never had good title. ## Auction results Hammer and buyer's premium are stated separately. Where a source conflates them this record says so. - **** , - The Sevso Treasure has never been sold at auction and there is no hammer price for it. It was offered once, by Sotheby's in New York, announced on 10 February 1990 at a published estimate variously reported as 40 to 70 million dollars and 50 to 100 million dollars. Lebanon sued on 15 February, a restraining order followed on 20 February and the treasure was impounded in March. No lot was ever knocked down. A second showing, at Bonhams in London in October 2006, was a private viewing for an invited audience and not an auction; it produced no sale. - **** , - Every 1980s figure attached to this treasure is a private transaction price between dealers and trusts, not a market result: 48,000 pounds for a geometric ewer in November 1980, 225,000 pounds for the Hunting Plate, 525,000 pounds for the Achilles Plate in May 1981, 180,000 pounds for a geometric plate in September 1981, 525,000 pounds for the Hippolytus situla in December 1981, 500,000 pounds for two pieces bought by Northampton in 1982, and 8.7 million dollars for four pieces in 1987. A further 628,000 pounds in 1985 and 460,000 dollars in 1987 were spent not on objects but on Lebanese export documentation. - **** , - The 2014 and 2017 payments by the Hungarian state are private transaction sums under negotiated agreements and are not auction results, estimates or valuations. They are reported in three incompatible legal registers and this record keeps all three: 15 million euros and 28 million euros, called a compensation fee by the Hungarian National Museum and described in the Hungarian government's account of 2017 as compensation to two family foundations for relinquishing the treasure; 20.7 million dollars for the first tranche, called a retention fee by Artnet News reporting The Art Newspaper in April 2014; and a purchase in most press coverage. The euro and dollar figures for the first tranche are the same money reported in two currencies at two conversion dates. None of this is a price for the treasure and none of it should be quoted as its value. - **** , - One genuine auction result touches this record without being a result for this object. In 1985 the Marquess of Northampton sold Mantegna's Adoration of the Magi at Christie's in London to the J. Paul Getty Museum, reported at 10.5 million dollars and described as a then record auction price for the artist. The source consulted does not state whether that figure is the hammer or the total with buyer's premium, and the currency of the sale room was sterling while the figure is quoted in dollars. It is recorded here only because it places the same seller and the same museum in the same room one year after the Getty rejected his Roman silver as improperly documented. ## Exhibitions - Private view before the announced sale, Sotheby's, New York, 1990 - Private viewing for an invited audience of academics, curators, collectors and dealers, Bonhams, London, 2006 - Display of the first tranche after repatriation, Hungarian Parliament Building, Budapest, 2014 - Presentation of the second tranche and subsequent national tour, Hungarian Parliament Building and regional museums, Hungary, 2017 ## Literature - Toth, E. and Nagy, M., 'The Seuso treasure: The Pannonian connection?', Minerva 1 (1990), 5-11. - Mrav, Zs., 'A polgardi osszecsukhato ezustallvany es a Seuso-kincs / The late Roman silver folding stand from Polgardi and the Seuso treasure', in Visy, Zs. and Mrav, Zs. (eds), A Seuso-kincs es Pannonia / The Seuso treasure and Pannonia, Pecs 2012, 80-106. - Hajdu, E., 'A Seuso-kincs es Magyarorszag / The Seuso treasure and Hungary', in Visy, Zs. and Mrav, Zs. (eds), A Seuso-kincs es Pannonia, Pecs 2012, 23-34. - Nagy, M., 'A Seuso-kincs pannoniai kapcsolatai / Connections of the Seuso treasure to Pannonia', in Visy, Zs. and Mrav, Zs. (eds), A Seuso-kincs es Pannonia, Pecs 2012, 49-63. ## Open questions - Where was the treasure found? No court has decided it. Hungary argues Polgardi, Croatia argues Barbariga in Istria, and the 1993 jury found only that neither had proved its case, on a record from which Hungary's soil analysis, police file and quadripus comparison had been excluded. - Why did Hungary do nothing between 1984 and 1990? Janos Gyorgy Szilagyi identified the PELSO inscription at the Getty in 1984 and told Andras Mocsy. The Hungarian National Museum records that no official steps followed. The reason has not been published. - Is the known group complete? Reports repeated in the specialist literature hold that perhaps eight further vessels and as many as 185 spoons came out of the same find and have never surfaced. Neither excavation nor prosecution has tested this. - Who killed Jozsef Sumegh, and did he find the silver? The death was recorded as suicide in December 1980 and later reinvestigated as murder. The file is open. No sale record, admission or eyewitness ties him to the treasure; the link is the pit in the cellar floor and the cauldron that fits it. - What is the legal character of the 2014 and 2017 payments? Hungary calls them compensation rather than purchase, which avoids conceding that the holders had title. No published agreement states what either party formally accepted about ownership. - Who forged the Lebanese export licences, and were they ever prosecuted? Three sets of Lebanese documentation were produced between 1981 and 1987, one of them proven forged by the Getty in March 1984. No prosecution for the forgery has been located. - What became of the Croatian claim? It was rejected in 1993 and the dismissal affirmed in 1994, but Artnet News reported in April 2014 that Croatia had still not relinquished it, and no withdrawal or refutation has been located since. Croatian soil comparisons have never been published alongside the Hungarian ones for direct comparison. - Has the 2014 scientific programme reported? The Hungarian National Museum stated that the find-spot question can only be resolved by the archaeological, art-historical and archaeometric analyses begun in 2014. No published conclusion from that programme was located for this record. - Was the 10.5 million dollars reported for the 1985 Christie's sale of Northampton's Mantegna to the J. Paul Getty Museum a hammer price or a price with premium? The source consulted gives one figure and does not say, which is the ordinary defect this archive exists to correct. - Did the J. Paul Getty Museum report its March 1984 finding that the Sevso export licences were forged to anyone - to Lebanon, to Interpol, to the Art Loss Register or to any other museum? No account consulted records that it did, and a second set of Lebanese papers was commissioned the following year. - Was the 2014 payment 15 million euros or 20.7 million dollars, and is it a compensation fee, a retention fee or a purchase price? The holding museum and the trade press use different sums in different currencies under different legal descriptions for what appears to be one transaction. No agreement has been published. ## Sources - [1] Trafficking Culture, 'Sevso Treasure' case study, University of Glasgow. Consolidates the purchase chronology, the recorded dealer prices, the Getty's March 1984 finding that the Lebanese permit signatures were forged, the trust structure, the Metropolitan Police investigation and the Mimpriss litigation. - [2] Hungarian National Museum, Seuso Research Project, 'Recent history of the treasure trove'. The holding institution's own account: the 1984 identification of PELSO by Janos Gyorgy Szilagyi at the Getty, the Koszarhegy quadripus, the Sumegh investigation and the pit, the exclusion of Hungary's evidence at trial, and the description of the 2014 and 2017 payments as compensation. - [3] Art-Law Centre, University of Geneva, ArThemis platform, case note 'Sevso Treasure - Lebanon et al. v. Marquess of Northampton'. Chronology of the New York proceedings, the February 1990 filings, the seven-week trial and the 1994 appellate affirmance. - [4] Wikipedia, 'Seuso Treasure'. Tertiary source, used for the inscription text, the composition of the group and the 2014 and 2017 sums. Flagged for replacement with Visy and Mrav (eds), A Seuso-kincs es Pannonia, Pecs 2012, and with the Hungarian National Museum catalogue. - [5] Blue Guides, 'The Seuso Saga'. Descriptions of the individual vessels acquired in 2017, the division of engraving and repousse work, and the characterisation of the 2017 payment as compensation for custodianship rather than purchase. - [6] Wikimedia Commons file page for the 1878 drawing of the Polgardi silver stand, giving the date, the National Museum illustrator and the PD-old licence. Licence verified from extmetadata LicenseShortName at fetch time. - [7] Daily News Hungary, 'Hungary acquires another seven pieces of Seuso Treasure', 12 July 2017. The seven objects in the second tranche, the 28 million euro figure, the description of the payment as compensation to two family foundations for relinquishing the treasure, Viktor Orban's remarks, Laszlo Baan's statement that the government had pursued the treasure since 1990, and the display in the Parliament building before transfer to the Hungarian National Museum. - [8] Wikipedia, 'Spencer Compton, 7th Marquess of Northampton'. Tertiary source, used for his dates, succession in 1978, the two family seats, the 2017 wealth assessment and the 1985 Christie's sale of Mantegna's Adoration of the Magi to the J. Paul Getty Museum. Its account of the 1993 New York outcome is inaccurate and is not relied on here; see the editor's note. Flagged for replacement with Debrett's and the Christie's sale record. - [9] Cascone, Sarah, 'Controversy Still Haunts Sevso Ancient Roman Silver Stolen From Hungary', Artnet News, 30 April 2014, reporting The Art Newspaper. The 2014 payment described as a 20.7 million dollar retention fee; the seller identified as a trust benefiting Peter Wilson's two sons; the statement that Croatia had not relinquished its claim; the unveiling of the Hunting Plate by Viktor Orban and Jozsef Palinkas; and the move from the Parliament building to the Hungarian National Museum in July 2014. --- Images on this record are public domain or CC0 and are hosted by us. No image on this site is generated or simulated. If you quote this record, quote the provenance grades with it.