In response, the country's head - Prince Alois von und zu Liechtenstein - has argued that Germany's move is illegal.
Last year, while the country suffered its deep recession, it was discovered that the King was elephant-hunting in Botswana in the company of Corinna Zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, a German princess with whom he has been romantically linked and whose name has also appeared in documents related to the Urdangarin investigation.
Another important noble item will be a pair of ruby-and-diamond pendant ear clips, dated 1921 and featuring perfectly matched deep-red Burmese rubies, that were owned by Princess Max Egon zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1892-1990).
But when prospective sellers, including German Prince Michael zu Salm-Salm, checked, they learned Shapiro had no operations, no cash reserves and a pool of private stock of unpersuasive value, says Bowthorpe.
Economy Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, from Mrs Merkel's conservative CDU-CSU alliance, criticised the pledges, saying they were short of detail.
Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, an aristocrat who lives in a Bavarian castle, admitted breaching standards but denied deliberately cheating.
Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg resigned in March after admitting to "serious mistakes" in his 2006 legal dissertation, but denied cheating.
He went on to Cornell University, where he joined the Zu, an Asians-only fraternity house, and majored in business and marketing.
That makes former German Economics Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg look downright prescient.
The incident has sparked criticism of Germany's Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg.
Ex-Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg resigned from his post last year after it emerged he copied large parts of his doctoral thesis.
Mrs Merkel arrived early on Saturday in Kunduz, where Germany has a base, accompanied by Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg and military Chief of Staff Volker Wieker.
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Another plagiarism row in 2011 led to the resignation of Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, when it emerged that large parts of his doctoral thesis were copied.
The same website exposed plagiarised passages in the doctoral thesis of Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, who resigned as defence minister on 1 March after being stripped of his PhD.
Large parts of Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg's 2006 legal dissertations were found by Bayreuth University to have been copied and he stood down before it issued its damning verdict in May 2011.
That evening, Prince Hans-Adam II and his wife, Princess Marie von und zu Liechtenstein, invited the Secretary-General and Madam Ban to dinner at their residence, Vaduz Castle.
Foreign-policy making is increasingly influenced by younger pragmatists, says Karl-Theodor Freiherr zu Guttenberg, of the Christian Social Union.
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The scandal led to the minister being nicknamed Baron Cut-and-Paste, Zu Copyberg and Zu Googleberg by the German media.
Authors Guofo Zhou and Yingzi Zu use some complex math based on the random-walk theory to show that the odds of watching half your liquid net worth evaporate are roughly similar to those of another major life event: death.
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