The US government sealed Nikola Tesla's papers after he died, his nephew took them to Belgrade, and the church and scientists later fought over his ashes

Nikola Tesla died alone in Room 3327 of the Hotel New Yorker on 7 January 1943, aged 86. The Office of Alien Property took his property, sealed it and moved it to a Manhattan warehouse, though Tesla was a US citizen. About three weeks later the MIT engineer John G. Trump examined the papers for the government. He reported they were "primarily of a speculative, philosophical and promotional character". Tesla's nephew Sava Kosanović, son of his youngest sister and a Yugoslav diplomat, was his heir. Some FBI officials feared he would pass Tesla's technology to enemies and considered arresting him. On 21 June 1943 the US Supreme Court struck down key claims of Marconi's radio patent and found that Tesla's 1897 patent anticipated several of its features. The papers reached the port of Rijeka in September 1951 in 60 packages. FBI records had counted about 80 trunks. Yugoslavia founded the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade in December 1952, and it opened in 1955. In 1957 Kosanović and Tesla's niece Milica Trbojević brought his urn from New York to the museum. In 2014 a plan to move the ashes to the Church of Saint Sava drew protests by thousands. William Terbo, Tesla's last surviving relative, wanted the urn kept at the museum. It is still there.