SHORT TAKES : Disputed Art Stored at Museum

DALLAS — A cache of 14th-Century artworks taken from Germany during World War II has been quietly moved from two Texas bank vaults to the Dallas Museum of Art for safekeeping.

The artworks transferred earlier this week from bank vaults in Dallas and the Denison branch of First National Bank of Whitewright will be stored at the museum until a federal court decides whether a Texas family or a German church is the rightful owner.

The Lutheran church of Quedlinburg, East Germany, is suing the heirs of the late Army Lt. Joe T. Meador of Whitewright, contending Meador stole the items from the mine shaft where they were hidden during the war.

An inventory filed with the court states that the items include six jeweled holy boxes, one of which belonged to Germany’s King Henry I; a crystal flask shaped like a bird; two boxes made of semiprecious stones and metals; three polished stones; a French medallion; a silver cross; a wooden crucifix with a silver figure of Christ and a silver-plated book.