40: Proceeds of War (Cultural Confusion)

[slender roost]

At least one of the curving scabbards in this photo, inlaid on each side and owned by a famous individual, was listed recently on the dark web for an astronomically high sum.

Having attacked the Japanese-held territories in China and Korea during the final weeks of World War II, the Soviet army invaded Manchuria and captured the owner of this weapon as he attempted to flee China for Japan.

Despite China's demands that the Kremlin return the POW so he could be tried as a war criminal, the man remained in Soviet custody for years. Desperate not to be handed back to the Chinese, the prisoner made several requests for permanent asylum. He petitioned Joseph Stalin directly and gave his collection to the government of the USSR, which took him up on his donation and then handed him back to China anyway.

What happened to the bulk of this gentleman's treasure after World War II is murky. We do know it travelled from Russia to Ukraine and was displayed as part of a private collection tied to two wealthy Ukrainians.

In 2023, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) detained the collection as the Asian pieces were being transported out of Ukraine and into Europe.

Based on public media reports, what is the presumed nationality of the dark web seller?

Found the collection, the piece, the news about 2023, everything

but nothing about dark web and none of the nationalities I try have worked

[shut stratus]

I think it's a misdirection again

[wooden trail]

I tried this challenge too and I got nothing. Just an article from a Telegram channel - is that what you found too?

[shut stratus]

I think that the big paragraph of text is unrelated to the question

somehow

[slender roost]

yes possibly, but the dagger is part of the collection in the big text

[shut stratus]

finding the original owner is easy with the context clues

[slender roost]

what I think is unrelated is the 2023 vs the dark web

[shut stratus]

finding the collection, and the article in Ukrainian on the SBU website easy too

and the ending of the story as well

but the dark web is unrelated I think

[slender roost]

hmm maybe

solved it finally

not many spoilers but some hints:
||definitely same collection, just not same event||

||just with googling a couple of words, it's the first result for me||

||big article in big publication||

now this one is spoilery, how I found it: ||googled: "platar" "dark web" and I got an article in elmundo.es about it||

[shut stratus]

Found it as well

[pine aspen]

||this is also how I got there. I was going through some guy's travel blog with limited commentary and it took me forever to realize that the pictures were on the same page because they were in the same collection despite being two different exhibitions||

[shut stratus]

(I'm in France, it does not bring these results)

[slender roost]

aah I'm in ||Mexico, so probably because it's in spanish||

[shut stratus]

||found it through a 2023 instagram post on the instagram account of the ARCA, which I found through the link at the bottom of the challenge||

[pine aspen]

showed up in the US too

[pine aspen]

oh good thinking, this one and the last one were probably the only times I didn't click that haha

[shut stratus]

||Honestly it wasn't exactly on this specific artefact but the date and the ukrainian provenance matched https://www.instagram.com/p/CyvyqZ6Ab37/?img_index=6||

art.crime.research

Scythian gold grouping illicitly removed from Ukraine recovered by Policia Nacional in Spain.

https://www.blogger.com/blog/posts/3425507272157287074

Instagram

close enough 🤷‍♀️

[wooden trail]

Thanks - got it in the end too.

[latent hedge]

VPNs help (on occasion) can help with giving you different news articles depending on where you geolocate yourself and in what language you are searching.

[shut stratus]

Good to know!

[nocturne anchor]

That's also a first hit for me ||if you search for the name of the POW and "dark web"||, but only ||if you provide his name like it is in the article. You get nothing if you search the way Wikipedia has his name.||

[quick glen]

At least it was an advantage in the challenge 38 as you mentioned! 😅

[shut stratus]

True! Frenchness is both a blessing and a curse 😉

[loud swan]

I should learn to read the instructions better. Spend hours trying to find the name of the seller instead of the nationality