the treasury, filling 39 immense boxes, was shipped to marseille and placed in a bank depository. subsequently, this precious cargo was transferred to one of the banks in paris. although the treasury was officially the property of the georgian government-in-exile, it was actually ekvtime takaishvili who supervised this huge collection. in the early 1930s, takaishvili won a lawsuit against salome obolenskaya, daughter of the last mingrelian prince niko dadiani, who also laid claim to a part of the treasury taken from the former dadiani palace in zugdidi, georgia. despite numerous attempts by various european museums to purchase portions of this treasury, and extreme economic hardship, takaishvili never sold a single piece of the priceless collection to live on and guarded it until 1933, when the league of nations recognized the soviet union; the georgian embassy in paris was abolished and transformed into the "georgian office". the treasury passed into the possession of the french state. in 1935, takaishvili urged the french government to hand the collections to georgia, but it was not until the end of the world war ii when he was able, in november 1944, to attract the attention of the soviet ambassador aleksandr bogomolov to the fate of the georgian treasury. joseph stalin's good relations with general charles de gaulle enabled takaishvili to bring the treasury back to georgia. however, takaishvili had to spend his long unhappy days in tbilisi under house arrest, seemingly considered to be too old to be imprisoned.