Rubin v. Iran: Supreme Court Says Persepolis Collection Will Stay at the Oriental Institute

The University of Chicago no longer is in danger of losing ancient Iranian artifacts following Wednesday's United States Supreme Court decision in the case of Jenny Rubin, et al. v. Islamic Republic of Iran.

The university's Oriental Institute (OI) holds the "Persepolis Collection," which consists of approximately 30,000 archaeological artifacts on loan from the National Museum of Iran since 1937.

The cultural objects became the target of a civil suit after American terrorist victims tried to execute a multi-million dollar court judgment against Iran. When Iran failed to pay, the plaintiffs sought to execute their judgment by trying to acquire the Iranian artifacts at OI and others located at various cultural institutions throughout the United States.

[VIDEO] "Moxie" Sniffs Out the Scent of Antiquities

Moxie is one of the working dogs spearheading the K-9 Artifact Finders project. The program aims to equip customs officers with a new tool to nab heritage traffickers by finding target scents linked to illegally looted artifacts.

The research is sponsored by Red Arch Cultural Heritage Law & Policy Research.

Penn Vet Working Dog Center is conducting the study with the assistance of the Penn Museum and includes the following project experts:

Dr. Cynthia M. Otto, Principal Investigator
Executive Director of the Penn Vet Working Dog Center.

Attorney Ricardo "Rick" St. Hilaire, Project Creator and Co-Investigator
Founder and Executive Director of Red Arch Cultural Heritage Law & Policy Research

Dr. Michael Danti, Principal Consultant
Principal Investigator and Academic Director of ASOR Cultural Heritage Initiatives and a Penn Museum Consulting Scholar

Domenic DiGiovanni, Consultant
US Customs and Border Protection Officer (Ret.) and antiquities specialist, featured in the documentary The Real-Life Indiana Jones. Read his insights about K-9 A.F. here.

Peter Herdrich, Consultant
Chief Executive Officer at Cultural Capital Group, LLC

Dr. David "Lou" Ferland, Consultant
Executive Director of The United States Police Canine Association and retired police chief

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