The question of Tesla’s files being confiscated by the FBI comes up from time to time. Typically someone will link to the FBI records vault as “proof” that the FBI has the records.
If you read the contents of the Tesla files at the FBI records vault you will see that it DOES NOT contain any records of filed created by Nikola Tesla. It is the files containing notes of FBI investigations of Nikola Tesla.
There is documentation on the FBI vault website describing the events that took place. A few days after Tesla's death the property of Nikola Tesla was seized by the Office of Alien Property and taken to the Manhattan Storage and Warehouse Co.
The removal of the property was done in the presence of several witnesses, and a certificate of ownership was issued to his nephew Sava Kosanovic. Tesla died during WWII and his next of kin, Kosanovic, was a diplomat that represented the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. It is not too much of a stretch to see why the US Government held on to his belongings during WWII.
Many of the pages in the FBI Tesla file are FBI responses to various requests to access his personal belongings which are now at the Tesla Museum in Belgrade, Serbia.
The Nikola Tesla Museum has the property of Nikola Tesla that was returned to his family in 1951, but they do a good job of guarding his personal property, and not making it available to the public.
I inquired about visiting museum, and asked how I might be able to obtain access to the library. I received a reply back with a list of questions asking me why I needed access to the library. I know other people who have inquired about getting access to Tesla's files beyond the basic museum displays, and have not been successful.
For all the conspiracy theories I have read regarding the FBI and US military regarding the “lost files” of Nikola Tesla, I am surprised to see not many people writing about any conspiracy theories regarding the Tesla Museum in Belgrade, Serbia.
(And please don't argue with me about the contents of the FBI vault file on Nikola Tesla. I have read through the more than 250 pages, there is no smoking gun x-files mysteries revealed there.)
Sadly there are many Tesla fan sites that are popular that perpetuate the myths. Likewise many of the biographies about Tesla are written with the goal of praising him. To get just facts, you really have to dig.
In this answer, https://www.quora.com/Are-Nikola-Teslas-surviving-lab-notes-publicly-available-to-visitors-of-the-Nikola-Tesla-museum/answer/Tom-Peracchio I discuss the Tesla Museum in Belgrade, Serbia. “Nikola Tesla’s Archive” mentioned on the UNESCO website talks about the “unique collection of manuscripts, photographs, scientific and patent documentation” located at the Tesla Museum in Belgrade, but the museum does not offer much online. Read through the comments to my answer, and you will see that the Serbian government is very protective of Tesla's work.
The Guru 42 Universe is not run by a university professor with a team of editors and advisers working to developing a website. Tom Peracchio is simply someone who loves technology and history and is amazed by how little people know about the great minds in the world of technology.
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