It can happen abruptly, while flipping through reruns of “Friends” or rewatching a movie like “Armageddon” or “Working Girl”: a sight of the twin towers, dominating the New York City skyline like steel sentinels.
Objects he had admired as a youngster — ancient limestone carvings, gilded Torah scrolls, bejeweled Islamic daggers, a 2,500-year-old mummy — were missing amid the charred debris and shattered display cases.