News of the finding set off a race among France, Britain, and Germany to acquire the piece.

A "squeeze" (a papier-mâché impression) of the full stele had been obtained just before its destruction. Ginsberg's translation of the official report, "Über die Auffindung der Moabitischen Inschrift", (On the Discovery of the Moabite Inscription) stated that Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau, an archaeologist