Priceless watches stolen from Israeli museum 27 years ago land L.A. woman in court

When prolific Israeli burglar Na’aman Diller died of cancer in 2003, he left his widow a collection of more than 100 priceless artifacts of decidedly questionable origin.

They included rare clocks, manuscripts, paintings and an item billed as “the world’s most expensive watch”: a gold and rock crystal pocket watch made for French Queen Marie Antoinette in the 18th century.

All the items had allegedly been stolen during a storied heist at Jerusalem’s L.A. Mayer Museum of Islamic Art back in 1983. But that didn’t stop Diller’s widow, Nili Shamrat, 64, of Tarzana, from trying to sell the treasures back to the art museum no questions asked, authorities said.

Her effort to sell the booty put in motion a lengthy international investigation that ended a few weeks ago when Shamrat was sentenced to five years of probation and 300 hours of community service for receiving the property. 

The California state insurance commissioner’s office announced the end of the case Tuesday, adding that most of the valuables have been sent back to the museum.

 Diller was a well-known burglar who operated in Israel and Europe in the 1960s and early 1970s. He met Shamrat in Tel Aviv in 1970, and the two dated until he went to prison in 1972. Shamrat moved to the Los Angeles area soon after that. They married in Tel Aviv in 2003 and it was then, investigators said, that Diller confided in her about the heist that he had pulled off 20 years before, willing her his entire estate.

Together they removed the stolen clocks from Diller’s apartment and stored them in a safe deposit box under her name, according to state investigators. After his death, Shamrat retrieved the stolen clocks from safe deposit boxes throughout Europe and hired an attorney to help sell them, investigators said.

--Tony Barboza

Photo: Mayer Museum

Comments

[Timber]

The attorney?

[GT]

More historical junk that no one has missed for mopre than thirty years, going back to a museum no one visits. The French will claim the watch of the Queen as cultural property and this mess will be back in the news before you know it.

[Mike]

20 years later and she get's five years of probation and 300 hours of community service for basically receiving stolen goods? Wow what's the statute of limitations on something like that?

[Jon]

She received the stolen goods in 2003.