France seeks return of royal automobile

SEATTLE, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- A car connoisseur from Seattle learned too late that a 1919 Turcat-Mery he purchased in France is considered a national treasure.

The car, Charles Morse told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, was built for the duc de Montpensier, a pretender to the French throne.

"It is a very special car," said Morse. "It's a one-off automobile with a wonderful history to it."

The car arrived in Seattle in 2005, but the French government is seeking its return. Morse said he has no problems with that but wants to be reimbursed the $927,518 he paid for it.

The duke, a descendant of the Bourbon dynasty, died in 1924 without children. His widow remarried, leaving his estate to her new husband, Alberto de Huarte, when she died in 1958.

De Huarte agreed in 1991 when the government classified the entire Montpensier estate as national treasures in 1991. But the Turcat changed hands at least twice and ended up in the Netherlands, where Morse bought it.

The U.S. government is backing the French claim, arguing that the Turcat was accompanied by paperwork that gave misleading information on its country of origin when it was imported.