In 2006, the Oriental Institute was the center of a controversy when a U.S. federal court ruling sought to seize and auction a valuable collection of ancient Persian tablets held by the museum. The proceeds were to compensate the victims of a 1997 bombing in Ben Yehuda Street, Jerusalem, an attack which the United States claimed was funded by Iran. The ruling threatened sale of an invaluable collection of ancient clay tablets, held by the Oriental Institute since the 1930s, but owned by Iran. The Achaemenid (or Persepolis) clay tablets were loaned to the University of Chicago in 1937. They were uncovered in Persepolis, Iran by Chicago archaeologists in 1933 and are legally the property of the National Museum of Iran and the Iran's Cultural Heritage Organization. The artifacts were loaned based on the understanding that they would be returned to Iran. The tablets, from Persepolis, the capital of the Achaemenid Empire, date to about 500 BCE.