The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal from several survivors of a 1997 suicide bombing in Jerusalem who want to seize Persian artifacts in U.S. collections to help pay a $71.5 million judgment against Iran over its alleged role in the attack.
The Supreme Court said on June 27 it will review a lower-court ruling that said the U.S. victims of the suicide bombing could not go after collections of Persian antiquities that are owned by the Iranian government and are on long-term loan to the University of Chicago.
Many of the artifacts, which have been on loan since 1937, are on display at Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History.
The victims accused Iran of providing training and support to the Palestinian group Hamas, which took responsibility for the attack. They won a judgment and sought the seizure of assets to pay the settlement after Iran's government refused to pay.
The Supreme Court's next session starts on October 2.
