The foundation established to preserve Anne Frank’s famous chestnut tree must pay for its removal and storage, a Dutch court ruled.

The Amsterdam court ruled that the Support Anne Frank Tree Foundation, established in 2008, must pay the Van der Leij company some $20,000 for its work or the company does not have to return the tree’s remains.

The company had caged the trunk of the 150-year-old tree in a steel structure for protection after the tree was weakened by a fungus and insect infestation, but it was toppled by a storm in August 2010.

The foundation told the French news agency AFP that it does not have the money to pay the company and probably never will.

Anne Frank made several references to the tree in her famous diary, which she kept for the two years she and her family hid in the attic of an Amsterdam home. Anne Frank died at Bergen-Belsen in March 1945. — jta