A rare, 450-year-old astrological compendium the Toledo Museum of Art purchased for $6,500 in 1954 is being returned to its rightful owner in Germany after documentation has shown it was probably one of many pieces of German art stolen after World War II.
The device, called an astrolabe, was used to tell time and make astronomical calculations less than 50 years after Ferdinand Magellan’s expedition circumnavigated the globe by sea for the first time, the Toledo Museum of Art said in a statement released this afternoon.
