>>27053
But in 1945 the National Socialist government left the country, fled to the west with the Germans and they took the Crown with themselves. From them the Americans confiscated it and sent it to the US. They gave it back in 1978. Then, a few years later (I think in 1983) a group of goldsmiths (actually 3 electric engineers, a mechanical engineer and a metallurgist) was allowed to study and examine the crown. The whole process was recorded on film by the "royal" television. I haven't seen a second of the footage sadly I dunno if it's available to anyone.
They looked behind the Pantokrator with the help of strong lamps, halogen lamps, fundus lens and laryngoscope. Two of them did it and both firmly stated: it reads ARTHOLO, the plate slid lower down in the socket and the icon is broken, most of it is missing. They also determined that the cross strap behind the icon is bent forward so it flexes to the broken plate and fixes it in place in the socket.
Later one dude from this group started to write about the crown a lot with wild ravings and frequently little basis so everyone started to take their findings less seriously. Also it is "found out" (as if it was a secret) their relation with the "pseudo-scientific" researcher (based on what I know about his works I think he has unusual ideas and great imagination but I wouldn't label them "pseudo" for this) and got attacked from the "officials". I think if they had just presented their findings, without adding any comments and making conclusions, it would have been better.
Another company of goldsmiths made an investigation in the early '90s (93-94 I think), and they are referred to frequently since, even Hungarian Wikipedia presents some of their findings and opinions. I couldn't get any of their reports from online source, probably with the help of libraries I could read them but that's just too much effort for our purpose (and probably money). Nevertheless the available material of theirs tells nothing about the Bartholomew icon.
I read however that the aforementioned Tóth Endre - the one who is considered legit - recognized the claim of the first group about Artholo as true.
What this means to us? Not much, but we can smile on the joke that he was flayed so his skin is missing from the Crown.