If you visit the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, you can see a 1911 plane built by the Wright Brothers in its collection. But as the New York Times reports, an unexpected custody fight has emerged over the plane nearly a century after it arrived there. What's not in dispute is that a wealthy Philadelphia man named Grover Bergdoll bought the two-seater plane from the famous brothers. The museum then acquired it in 1933. But now Bergdoll's descendants allege that the museum acquired it in underhanded fashion and want it back, or at least want fair compensation. The museum disputes that narrative, and the story by Graham Bowley unpacks it all in detail.
The central twist to the tale is that Bergdoll was an infamous draft dodger in his day, having failed to report for duty in 1917 during World War I. He was eventually captured and sentenced to five years in prison, but he escaped after only a few weeks and left for his ancestral land of Germany. The museum says Bergdoll told a museum official he wanted to donate the plane, but it acknowledges it has nothing in writing to back this up. A spokesperson says that's understandable: "Bergdoll was still a fugitive and his assets had been and continued to be subject to government seizure." The family, though, isn't buying it, and wants the museum to "own up to the facts of how it was obtained," in the words of daughter Katharina Bergdoll. Read the full story. (More Wright brothers stories.)
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