The saga of two Tiffany windows found at a historic church at 50th and Baltimore in West Philadelphia continues with another stakeholder entering the picture, writes Zoe Greenberg for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

The windows were about to be destroyed when they were acquired by Paul Brown, an architectural salvager based in Lancaster. When he discovered the windows were made by Tiffany, he spent upward of $100,000 on repairs.

The windows sold for $200,000 total, along with $52,000 in auction fees. However, once the true value of the windows was discovered, several parties sought to claim ownership over them retroactively.

“In this situation, it felt like I got the middle finger,” said Brown.

When Emmanuel Christian Center, new owner of the historic church, asked for a share of the profit, Brown agreed.

But after the windows sold, the auction house received a letter that froze the payout. In it, Fulton Bank, owner of the mortgage for the church, wrote that the windows should be considered part of the mortgage lien, and as such belong to the bank.

For now, the matter is in litigation and nobody has received any money.

Read more about the struggle between Paul Brown and Fulton Bank over the West Philadelphia church’s Tiffany windows in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

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