New York Judge Approves Sale of Schindler’s List

By Michael Kaminer December 27, 2010

It’s hard to put a price on the heroism of Oskar Schindler, the German industrialist who helped save more than a thousand Jews from the Nazis. But you can, apparently, place a value on his legendary lists. A New York State Supreme Court judge has ruled that Orange County memorabilia dealer Gary Zimet can proceed with plans to sell one of the rosters, the (UK) Daily Telegraph reports.

Zimet – whose Washingtonville, NY-based company, Moments In Time, specializes in “autographs, documents, manuscripts, signed photographs, and other original historic memorabilia,” according to its web site – says the document could be worth about $2 million, YNetNews reports. An heir to Schindler’s widow Emilie had sued Zimet in May; Marta Rosenberg claimed that selling the document would violate her copyrights. But Sunday’s ruling by Supreme Court Justice Louis York lifted the temporary ban on Zimet’s planned sale. The ruling was “a real victory,” said Zimet, who claims the 13-page document is one of Schindler’s originals.

According to the report, most of the lists reside in Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum and in museums in the US. In March, when he’d first announced plans to sell the list, Zimet told Hollywood.com that the family of Schindler’s accountant, Itzhak Stern – played by Sir Ben Kingsley in Steven Spielberg’s dramatization – owned the list for nearly six decades before selling it privately to its current owner, who is unloading it through Zimet’s company.

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