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Double Naught Spy,
Neither have you, nor anyone on this board, shown any proof it was, in fact stolen, just Poland's claim, which I find ridiculous, as do many others.
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You are correct in that nobody has proven the gun was stolen. I certainly have NEVER claimed that it was. However, my concern is your repeated statements of fact that the gun is a war trophy. Your statements of such are NOT FACTUALLY KNOWN and certainly may be incorrect. Not even the collector knows the history of the particular weapon. Through his lawyer, he has stated his beliefs about its history, but his beliefs are not facts.
You have also stated that if the gun came to the US that the government must have given permission for this to happen and that therefore it is now legal. This is also information that isn't known to be fact. You have no idea how the gun came to be in the US. The collector doesn't know.
What we do know is where and when the gun was made, apparently that it was issued to the police, and that ended up in the US, but that the collector believes it is a war trophy and hence should be his legally and that Poland claims that the gun should be returned as it was taken illegally and falls under the guise of being part of their cultural heritage as being of historical or scientific significance.
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Second, the treaty of 1907 does not list any weapon as being protected, only art treasures, statues, and places of science and learning such as universities, etc, though they may be owned by the state. Here, these were specifically protected from being war trophies, but nothing else.
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Even this is wrong. Holy cow. From the Hague Convention of 1907
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Art. 56. The property of municipalities, that of institutions dedicated to
religion, charity and education, the arts and sciences, even when State
property, shall be treated as private property. All seizure of, destruction or willful damage done to institutions of this character, historic monuments, works of art and science, is forbidden, and should be made the subject of legal proceedings.
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