[MSN] Intrepid Museum lost iconic picture of American flag raise at Iwo Jima: suit

[MSN]

Intrepid Museum lost iconic picture of American flag raise at Iwo Jima: suit

BY JOSE MARTINEZ
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Thursday, April 3rd 2008, 4:00 AM
Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum, seen on carrier's 2006 trip to New Jersey for spruceup, has been sued for $175,000 over the loss of famed Iwo Jima photo (below). Watts/News

Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum, seen on carrier's 2006 trip to New Jersey for spruceup, has been sued for $175,000 over the loss of famed Iwo Jima photo (below).
Rosenthal/AP

A wealthy military buff is declaring war on the Intrepid, charging ship officials lost his iconic image of Marines raising the American flag at Iwo Jima.

Rodney Hilton Brown, a longtime supporter of the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum, has filed a $175,000 suit that accuses the museum of misplacing the Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph.

It was part of an exhibit at the retired aircraft carrier that marked the 60th anniversary of the fierce World War II battle.

The Manhattan mortgage broker contends the famous photo of five Marines hoisting the flag over Mount Suribachi was missing from an album he had loaned to the museum when the Intrepid returned the picture book in 2006.

"It's a national treasure," said Rae Downes Koshetz, Brown's lawyer. "He is very sad and upset at what has happened."

The Intrepid, which has been getting overhauled in Staten Island since 2006, is set to reopen in November at Pier 86 on the West Side of Manhattan. When the museum aboard the World War II carrier returns, it likely won't have Brown's collection of military memorabilia or his towering sculpture of the Iwo Jima flag-raising.

The museum declined to meet his price for the 20-foot-high sculpture. Its commander said he was "disappointed" by the suit.

"Our mission is to honor and support - with the limited resources available to us - the brave men and women who have served our country, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan, and their families," said Bill White, president of the museum and the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund. "This unfortunate action detracts from our carrying out this critically important national mission."

Brown contends his collection of photos - which he bought for $5,000 in 1990 from a retired Air Force major - has been "irreparably destroyed" and that scholars and museums will be deprived "of this artifact of American military history."

His once-tight relationship with the Intrepid has fizzled. "He has been delighted to be a benefactor of the museum," Downes Koshetz said. "It has meant a lot to him."

jmartinez at nydailynews.com
http://www.nydailynews.com/