I do not doubt the fact that the Museum provenanced the sword.
But...
Lew has a point: presidential gifts are , as a rule, lavish and overdecorated, often to the point of being garish. This one is cheap, cheap, cheap!
It is carelessly executed, with the scabbard made of plain wood, and with a primitive handle with a new-looking fabric( rayon?
). What was going on? Couldn't they scramble for a touch of ivory? Rubies are dirt cheap there, and silver is also not that expensive. I saw dozens of swords in the Palace Museum in Bangkok that were orders of magnitude better and more lavish. Heck, Mark's Index has much better swords!
Presenting something like that to the President of the US is almost an insult, unless this sword has an intrinsic historical value. Anything of that nature mentioned in the museum papers?
Something is whispering in my ear that all is not well with this story.
The nastiest scenario that comes to mind is that somebody swiped the original sword for a Chinese "eximious yataghan of military affairs with a rosewood vagina" and nobody paid attention. This sword was in storage and travelled from museum to museum...Any pictures or documented detailed descriptions of this sword on arrival to the US?
Sorry, Mark....