The monetary goal has been reached in order to bring home an original Central Terminal light fixture from an antique store in Toronto. The organization Broadway Fillmore Alive has posted on its Facebook page that the amount of $3696 was raised, which not only exceeded the initial $3100 needed, but did it in a record amount of time.
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The money was to be raised by December 24, 2012, in order to ensure that the fixture would come home. From what I understand the goal was reached around the beginning of December. Shortly before the first of the month, an announcement was made that they were getting close to reaching the final goal. That news prompted a number of supporters to push it over the edge.
That means that the generosity of Buffalonians, both near and far, accomplished the goal in about a two-week time period. Not a bad way to start off the holidays.
Now we just need to bring trains back...
From what I understand, the Terminal was in private hand in the 80s and early 90s. The owners stripped the complex of anything of value and sold it. It was theirs and they had a right to sell whatever they liked. Any buyer would have bought it legitimately.
If anything were actually stolen from the Terminal and then resold, the Terminal today would have to prove that the buyer knew or should have known it was stolen. If there was no reason to know it was stolen, a court would likely rule that the buyer was nonetheless a bonafide buyer and rightful owner.
At least, this is what I remember from my law school classes on stolen artifacts. I may remember it wrong, or the law may have changed, and if so, I'm confident someone will correct me.
The issue is more pressing with the Darwin Martin house when windows were stolen when the building was abandoned and also owned by UB. Oddly enough, the House cannot sue anyone who purchased stolen windows, or at least it would be very difficult to do so.