1988

The Gospel appears!

The international art market is in turmoil when suddenly the Samuhel Gospel is for sale. No one on the official side was able to determine the owner. In 1989, the Cultural Foundation of the newly reunited Germany and the Federal Ministry of the Interior aimed for funding and, under dramatic circumstances, finally succeeded in acquiring the codex for a "finder's reward" of DM 5 million. So far, so good. But where was the rest?

Inofficial Investigations.

The New York Times had called him "Agent of the German government". But Willi Korte was that by no means, on the contrary. There has never been an official order. The art detective acted on his own. Even before the German reunification, he was personally approached by the curator of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and familiarized with the cathedral treasure in private. There were no official ways to investigate, but if Korte could on his own responsibility... utmost discretion... then...

And Korte went to Washington without authorization. He began to search the released archives, because there was the assumption that the treasure somehow came to the USA in the course of the occupation of Germany. Everything else was in the dark. Korte had to find out which military unit had taken Quedlinburg and then whether there was a note on the Altenburg Cave in the reports of this unit. A time-consuming Sisyphean task.

The trail led to the fourth cavalry regiment, but the war diary did not give up the names of the officers and Korte was stuck. Only the article in the New York Times was supposed to open further doors for him. Korte had tried to publish the case and worked with perseverance on a journalist until he finally published his own story. Now there was pressure on the art market and so it came to a memorable meeting.

A conversation without words.

The New York antiquarian bookshop Kraus, so Korte heard, might have been involved in the deal for the Samuhel Gospel. He went to the antiquarian bookstore and talked to an employee. At first, the conversation was one-sided. Korte asked him about the cathedral treasure and tried to get answers. But the employee kept a low profile and stayed quiet. In these circles, professional honour forbids talking about clients. Instead, the employee chose another way, he silently presented Korte with a map of Texas and placed a pencil on it. But he didn't place it just anywhere. The top pointed to Whitewright, a small town north of Dallas!

And that's not everything. The employee also submitted a letter to the alleged "government commissioner" concerning the settlement of an estate. A certain John Farley, director of the First National Bank in Whitewright, had addressed the art experts. These were decisive clues with which Korte now hastily boarded a plane in the direction of Dallas.