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War and property

Loot, confiscation, occupation and partition: what war did to family property, and the heirs who sued to get it back.

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What do the war and property estate cases show?

A family that lives on public land under a job holds nothing the government cannot take with the job. A family that leaves at partition loses the house, and its fame can later raise the price for someone else.

Stories
21
Years
539 BCE to 2020
Main regions
Europe, Middle East, North America
Legal traditions
Civil law, Common law
Updated
30 October 2026

Every case in war and property, best-known first

Best-known first: cases from 1900 on, then the United States, then Europe, and the people most read about on English Wikipedia each month. Fiction, scripture and legend come last.

The Japanese Tea Garden, located inside Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California LCCN2013630140: Title: The Japanese Tea Garden, located inside Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, 1925 · Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California, USAThe Hagiwara family kept San Francisco's Japanese Tea Garden for 47 years; the 1942 removal orders took it, and the city paid two survivors $5,000 each in 1983The garden began as an exhibit at the 1894 California Midwinter International Exposition. Makoto Hagiwara, who had come to San Francisco in 1878, paid to build it and was its caretaker from 1895.goldengatepark.substack.com and 3 moreRaj Kapoor: Радж Капур в окружении почитателей из Советского Союза, 1950-ые (встреча в Индии с делегацией узбекских писателей: Самиг Абдукаххар и др) Raj Kapoor surrounded by admir1988 · Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, PakistanRaj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar were born in Peshawar houses their families left at partition, the new owners refused to sell, and the province took both by compulsory purchaseDewan Basheswarnath Kapoor built a two-storey house of about 1,400 square feet in old Peshawar in 1922. His son Prithviraj was the first Kapoor in films.aa.com.tr and 3 morePissarro - rue-saint-honore-afternoon-rain-effect-1897: Work by Camille Pissarro2005 · Berlin, Germany; Madrid, Spain; Los Angeles, California, USALilly Cassirer gave up her Pissarro to the Nazis for an exit visa in 1939, and her heirs' suit against Spain's Thyssen museum went to decision in October 2026Camille Pissarro painted Rue Saint-Honoré, Afternoon, Effect of Rain in 1897. Lilly Cassirer owned it in Berlin. In 1939, to get an exit visa to England, where her grandson Claude had gone, she gave it to the Nazis.Cornell Law School, LII and 3 moreBaghdad Synagogue: Meir Tweig Synagogue or Meir Taweig or Meir Tweg Synagogue in Baghdad, Iraq1951 · Baghdad, Iraq; Washington, D.C., USAIraq took the property of the Jews who left in 1951, US troops found their community's books in a flooded secret-police basement in 2003, and the books have stayed in AmericaOn 9 March 1950 Iraq's parliament passed a law letting Jews leave if they gave up their citizenship and their right to return. About 125,000 of some 135,000 Iraqi Jews were airlifted to Israel in 1950 and 1951.jns.org and 3 moreTalaat Pasha: Mehmed talat1915 · Ottoman Empire (Turkey); Los Angeles, California, USATalaat asked the US ambassador for the list of Armenians insured by American companies, and 89 years later New York Life paid $20 million to their heirsBefore 1915 New York Life sold life policies to Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.Project Gutenberg and 3 moreMain front of Lednice Castle 4800 Planar 3: Main front of Lednice Castle2020 · Lednice and Valtice, Czech Republic; Cologne, Germany; StrasCzechoslovakia seized the Prince of Liechtenstein's estates as German property in 1945, and when one of his paintings was lent to Cologne, every court turned him awayThe princely house of Liechtenstein held estates in Bohemia and Moravia, including the Lednice and Valtice chateaux, now a UNESCO site.icj-cij.org and 3 moreYves Saint Laurent: Graphite and Egg Tempera on Canvas2008 · Beijing, China; Paris, FranceBritish and French troops looted the Summer Palace in 1860; Yves Saint Laurent's estate auctioned two of its bronze heads, and the winning bidder refused to payTwelve bronze animal heads of the Chinese zodiac spouted water from a fountain in the European section of the Yuanmingyuan, the Qing emperors' garden palace outside Beijing. The Jesuit Giuseppe Castiglione designed them.visualizingcultures.mit.edu and 4 moreHarbour, Kyrenia, Northern Cyprus: Harbour, Kyrenia, Northern Cyprus1996 · Kyrenia (Girne), Cyprus; Strasbourg, FranceTitina Loizidou was kept from her Kyrenia land after 1974, won in Strasbourg, and Turkey paid in 2003 but never gave back the landTitina Loizidou grew up in Kyrenia on Cyprus's north coast and owned several plots there. Work had begun on a block of flats on one before 20 July 1974, when Turkish forces landed.lagen.nu and 3 moreBlas Infante 1910: Blas Infante in 19101936 · Seville, SpainFranco's side shot Blas Infante in 1936, a tribunal fined him 2,000 pesetas in 1940, and his widow paidBlas Infante led the movement for Andalusian self-government. In August 1936, weeks into the Civil War, rebels took him from his home in Coria del Río near Seville. His daughter María de los Ángeles was six.publico.es and 3 moreSophia Schliemann wearing Treasure A, Troy: Heinrich Schliemann's wife, Sophia, wearing gold jewelry from Treasure A, ca 18731890 · Hisarlik (Troy), Turkey; Berlin, Germany; Moscow, RussiaSchliemann smuggled Priam's Treasure out of the Ottoman Empire and gave it to Berlin, the Red Army took it in 1945, and Moscow kept it secret for 50 yearsOn 31 May 1873 Heinrich Schliemann found a hoard of gold at Troy and called it Priam's Treasure. His Ottoman permit required the finds to be divided. He smuggled them to Greece.smb.museum and 2 moreImjingak Park & the Freedom Bridge: Imjingak park was built to console those from both sides who are unable to return to their hometowns, friends and families because of the divisi1987 · Seoul, South Korea; Sunchon County, North KoreaA doctor fled south in 1950 with one daughter, and 59 years later his four children left in North Korea sued their half-siblings for his estateA doctor surnamed Yoon ran a hospital in Sunchon County in North Korea. When the Korean War began in 1950 he fled south with only his eldest daughter. He left his wife and other children.nkeconwatch.com and 2 moreHorses of Basilica San Marco bright: Original Horses Inside Basilica San Marco1205 · Constantinople (Istanbul), Turkey; Venice, Italy; Paris, FraVenice took four bronze horses from Constantinople in 1204, Napoleon took them and Veronese's Wedding at Cana in 1797, and in 1815 only the horses went homeFour bronze horses from an ancient four-horse chariot stood in the Hippodrome of Constantinople by the 8th or 9th century.haaimagehosting.omeka.fas.harvard.edu and 4 moreBahadur Shah Zafar: This file has been provided by the British Library from its digital collections. Links to the British Library's website may be broken as the library recovers fr1862 · Delhi, India; Rangoon (Yangon), Myanmar; Howrah, West BengalA British officer shot the last Mughal emperor's sons in 1857, and in 2025 India's Supreme Court threw out his great-grandson's widow's claim to the Red FortBahadur Shah Zafar was the last Mughal emperor. When British forces retook Delhi in September 1857, William Hodson found him at Humayun's Tomb on 20 September and brought him in under orders to deliver him unharmed.LiveLaw and 4 moreRaymond VI of Toulouse: Raimond6Toulouse1222 · Toulouse, FranceThe Church gave Raymond VI's county to the crusade leader and refused his body burial, and his granddaughter's childless marriage handed Toulouse to FranceThe papal legate Pierre de Castelnau excommunicated Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse, in 1207, and the Council of Avignon excommunicated him again. The crusade against the Cathars took his lands.newadvent.org and 4 moreArch of Titus Menorah: This photograph shows a modern replica of the Arch of Titus relief depicting the spoils of the Jerusalem Temple, including the temple menorah, carried in a t70 · Jerusalem; Rome, Italy; Carthage (Tunis), Tunisia; ConstantiRome carried the Temple treasures in triumph, the Vandals took them to Carthage, and Procopius says Justinian sent them to Jerusalem because a Jew warned they brought down every palace that held themTitus took Jerusalem in AD 70 and the Temple was destroyed. Josephus records that Vespasian put the golden vessels and instruments taken from the Temple in his new Temple of Peace in Rome.sourcebooks.web.fordham.edu and 3 moreM. Tullius Cicero, Capitoline Museum, Rome: Bust of Cicero, Musei Capitolini, Rome, Half of 1st century AD81 BCE · Rome and Ameria (Amelia, Umbria), ItalySulla's freedman bought a murdered man's estate of 6 million sesterces for 2,000, and the son was charged with killing his fatherCicero's defence speech is the main source. Sextus Roscius of Ameria was killed at Rome near the Palatine baths as he walked home from dinner. A freedman of his kinsman Titus Roscius rode 56 miles overnight to Ameria with the news.University of Chicago, LacusCurtius and 2 moreMap of Greece, marked on the globe404 BCE · Athens and Piraeus, GreeceAthens's Thirty Tyrants arrested rich foreign residents for their money, took Polemarchus's 700 shields and 120 slaves, and made him drink hemlockCephalus of Syracuse settled in Athens at Pericles's invitation. His sons Polemarchus and Lysias were metics, free foreigners without citizenship, and ran a shield factory in the Piraeus with 120 slaves.perseus.tufts.edu and 6 moreSeated Portrait of Emperor Song Huizong 宋徽宗坐像: Seated Portrait of Emperor Song Huizong 宋徽宗坐像1135 · Kaifeng, Henan, China; Wuguocheng (Yilan, Heilongjiang), ChiThe Jurchens took two Song emperors north in 1127; a 1142 treaty brought home the father's coffin and left the son, a crowned emperor, in captivity until he diedOn 9 January 1127 Jin forces took Kaifeng, the Song capital.zh.wikisource.org and 3 moreHulaguInBagdad: The Mongol ruler Hulagu in Baghdad interns the Caliph of Baghdad among his treasures.1258 · Baghdad, Iraq; Cairo, EgyptHulagu took Baghdad and killed the last Abbasid caliph in 1258, chroniclers gave seven different deaths, and a surviving kinsman was made caliph in CairoIn 1258 the Mongol prince Hulagu took Baghdad, and the Abbasid caliph al-Musta'sim died on or about 20 February. Nassima Neggaz's 2020 study in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society lists the accounts of his death.cambridge.org and 3 moreMahmud of Ghazni: Mahmud of Ghazni, Ghaznavid ruler, conquering Qasdar (modern Khuzdar) in India, miniature from the Jamiʿ al-Tawarikh of 1030 · Ghazni, Afghanistan; Somnath, Gujarat, India; Agra, Uttar PrBritain carried gates from Mahmud of Ghazni's tomb to India in 1842 as the stolen gates of Somnath; they were Afghan cedar and are still in Agra FortMahmud of Ghazni raided the Somnath temple in Gujarat about 800 years before the British reached Ghazni. A later belief held that he carried off its gates and set them on his tomb at Ghazni.collections.vam.ac.uk and 2 moreBelshazzar's Feast label QS:Lit,"Il festino di Baldassarre" label QS:Lfr,"Le Festin de Balthazar" label QS:Lpl,"Uczta Ba: Belshazzar's Feast label QS:Lit,"Il festino di Baldassarre539 BCE · Jerusalem; Babylon (near Hillah), IraqBabylon took the Temple vessels; Daniel says Belshazzar drank from them the night he was killed, and Ezra says Cyrus returned 5,400Second Kings says that in Nebuchadnezzar's 19th year his captain Nebuzaradan burned the Temple in Jerusalem, broke up its bronze pillars and carried the bronze, gold and silver vessels to Babylon.mechon-mamre.org and 4 more