The hoard first came to attention in 1980, when a single piece in the possession of two antiquities dealers from
Vienna was offered for sale in London. Further pieces reached the market, and what is believed to be the complete hoard was acquired by a consortium headed by
Spencer Compton, 7th Marquess of Northampton. Documentation supplied by the Lebanese embassy in Switzerland stated that the treasure had originally been found in the
Tyre and
Sidon regions of Lebanon, and on that basis the consortium negotiated to sell the collection to the
Getty Museum in
Los Angeles for $10 million. When that deal fell through, the treasure was put up for sale in New York in 1990 by
Sotheby's, and was described as being from "what was once the
province of Phoenicia in the
Eastern Roman Empire".
Legal dispute The sale was halted when documentation was thought to be false, and the governments of Hungary, Yugoslavia and Lebanon each made claims of ownership. Hungarian authorities claim that the treasure was discovered by a young soldier, József Sümegh, in around 1975–76 near the town of
Polgárdi in central Hungary. Sümegh's body was found in a nearby cellar in 1980. The official investigation at the time determined that he had committed suicide, but the police later concluded that he had been killed. As of 2012 the criminal investigation into his death is still ongoing. Yugoslavia's case was based on claims that the treasure had been originally found on 30 June 1960 in the village of
Barbariga in
Istria (present-day
Croatia). In November 1993, the
New York Court of Appeals rejected the claims, and found no case for removing it from the possession of the Marquess of Northampton 1987 Settlement (a trust established by the Marquess of Northampton); the decision was confirmed by the Appellate Division in April 1994. The silver was locked in a bank vault while further legal proceedings followed. The Marquess sued his solicitors
Allen & Overy for damages in relation to advice given during the purchase of the silver, and that case was settled out of court in 1999 for a reported £15 million. On 25 June 1999, in written answers to questions in the
House of Lords, the British government confirmed that it had no further interest in the case and confirmed the decision not to prosecute. The Hungarian claim of possession is likely justified by the fact that on one of the main plates, the "Hunting Plate", an inscription is to be seen. It reads "Pelso", the Roman name for
Lake Balaton in Hungary; the lake is just west of the alleged place of discovery. Also near to the lake, in 1873 a presumed Roman
tripod (later restored, upon which it was discovered that it is a
quadripod) was discovered; according to scholars, this object featured similar decoration as the Seuso Treasure items, and is very likely a creation of the same hands. It is housed in the
Hungarian National Museum in
Budapest.
Later developments In September 2006, London auctioneer
Bonhams announced that it would exhibit the treasure privately, in a move seen as a prelude to a sale by private treaty or by auction at a future date. On 12 October 2006, further written answers were given in the
House of Lords to questions by
Colin Renfrew, Baron Renfrew of Kaimsthorn, particularly relating to Hungary's possible revised claim to the treasure since its
admission to the European Union in 2004. Bonhams went ahead with its private exhibition on 17 October 2006. In March 2007,
The Art Newspaper reported that a further "187 silvergilt spoons, 37 silvergilt drinking cups, and 5 silver bowls", previously unknown, but part of the original hoard, were reputed to exist. Research presented in February 2008 by the Hungarian archaeologist Zsolt Visy strengthened the view that the origin of the treasure may be the Lake Balaton region of Hungary. The
Channel 4 archaeology programme
Time Team aired a
special on the treasure in December 2008. The programme presented Hungary's evidence for the likely origin of the hoard being near the town of
Polgárdi. The Marquess of Northampton withdrew from planned participation in the programme and Channel 4 was not given permission to film the treasure, held in Bonhams' vault in London. ==Return to Hungary==