Donald Trump will finally return ancient artefacts sent to the US by Israel in 2019 after the items had a lengthy stay at Mar-a-Lago.
Israel sent the items to the US in December 2019 for a Hanukah event at the White House. The artefacts were meant to be displayed for the 2019 event and then returned to Israel, but the US state department prevented their display over concerns they may have been taken from the occupied West Bank.
The artefacts, which include a set of ancient coins and ceramic oil lamps, have been at the estate since December 2021, according to the New York Times. They ended up there when the Republican donor Saul Fox gave them to former president Trump at a 2021 Hanukah party at Mar-a-Lago.
The items were entrusted to Fox after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic delayed retrieval of the items as the Israel Antiquities Authority did not want to entrust the items to a shipping company. Fox told the Wall Street Journal that he thought the items were to be given to Trump permanently.
Previous efforts by senior Israeli officials to retrieve the artefacts over the past several months had failed.
“As the items were displayed as originally intended, the office will be expediting their return to the organization’s representative,” a Trump spokesman, Steven Cheung, told the Times.
The antiquities authority also told the Times in a statement that it had “no claims against Mr Donald Trump” and that officials from both the US and Israel are “working together to return the objects to their proper home”.
• This article was amended on 27 July 2023. Donald Trump was no longer president by the time he received the coins and lamps in 2021.
