Priceless Israeli Antiquities Lent to Former President Trump in 2019 Are Stranded at Mar-A-Lago

AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

Israeli officials have been trying to retrieve some of their country’s most valuable items, lent to former President Donald Trump for a Hanukkah celebration at the White House in 2019. A lot has happened since then, and those items are still stuck at Mar-a-Lago.

Haaretz reported that the items in question were ancient ceramic oil lamps that were “part of Israel’s national treasure collection,” lent with permission for a candle-lighting event on the condition that they were returned in a matter of weeks following the event. That was in December 2019, and the COVID pandemic struck just a couple of months later, causing a halt in the return process. Israel Hasson, then the director of the Israeli Antiquities Authority, told Haaretz “we wanted our man to go and bring it back, but then COVID broke out, and everything got stuck.”

But while the travel and shipping restrictions loosened as the pandemic wore on, the lamps were still not returned. Trump lost the 2020 election and moved his belongings — and allegedly some things that were not his belongings — back to his sprawling Florida estate. Several attempts were made to get the candles sent back, but were not answered. Haaretz also reported that there was an element of confusion at play:

An Israeli official briefed on the matter described it Tuesday as “a misunderstanding” and said the antiquities authority “woke up too late” instead of resolving the issue closer to the original White House event.

As the years marched on, the Israeli officials trying to get the items back went to Saul Fox, a donor to the Israeli Antiquities Authority who attended that 2019 event, asking him to take custody of the items. But Israeli authorities found out “several months ago” that the lamps “eventually ended up” at Mar-a-Lago, “where they still remain.”

Further attempts to get the items back went through the “the Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, and former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, asking them to aid in returning the items,” but the items, as far as anyone can tell, the items are still at Mar-a-Lago, possibly “found in some bathroom,” as one source posited. And as far as Trump goes, “[i]t is unclear whether Trump himself is aware that the items are on the premises of his estate.”