Washington’s Museum of the Bible has worked to restore trust by returning contaminated objects in its collection, looted from a Greek monastery during World War I.
The museum handed over the artifact, which its founder acquired at a Christie’s auction in 2011, to Eastern Orthodox officials in a private ceremony in New York. It will be repatriated next month to the Kosinitsa Monastery in northern Greece, where it has been used in liturgical ceremonies for over a hundred years.
The restitution is a recent attempt to investigate the provenance of the entire collection after an early acquisition by the founder, owner of the hobby lobby craft store chain, was found to contain thousands of looted items dating back to ancient times. It was in line with the policy of the Bible Museum. Mesopotamia and Egypt. The company paid him $3 million in 2017 and settled a claim with the U.S. government for failing to conduct due diligence. Chaotic multi-million dollar hoarding of international antiquities From 2009.
The Greek Orthodox Church states that several other American agencies brought looted relics from the same monastery.
Bible Museum website Trace the history of the manuscript The chain of ownership runs from its founding in the late 10th and early 11th centuries, to the looting of the monastery in 1917 and various post-war sales. Auctioned in the United States in 1958, most recently he was resold by Christie’s in 2011.
“Certainly there are challenges in the market,” said Jeffrey Kroha, chief curator of the Museum of the Bible, who was invited after the troubled acquisition. “Things with illegitimate origins have been on the market for some time, in some cases decades.”
Some of the pages are darkened by the smoke of candlelit prayers, some pages have been stained over the centuries by monks turning the pages, and were carried by mules by the Bulgarian army that stormed the monastery in 1917 It was in a library of over 400 manuscripts.
“It’s definitely a used object,” said Croha. “It would have been part of monastic life on a regular basis.”
The Bible Museum, which opened in 2017, has not released the manuscript due to questions about its provenance. This manuscript was included in a traveling exhibition held in the Vatican in 2012.
“I think the Museum of the Bible is a good example of how not to build a collection, but I hope other American museums follow this example when dealing with existing problematic collections,” says Tess Davis. the secretary general said Antiquities Union, It aims to combat the illegal trade in antiques. “In this case, the curators saw the red flags, followed where they led them, realized the manuscript had been stolen, contacted the rightful owner, and voluntarily returned it.”
Croha hopes that his museum’s return of the manuscripts will encourage other institutions to return manuscripts from monasteries that were found to have been looted during World War I.
greek orthodox church sued Princeton University four years ago An attempt was made to recover four manuscripts that many scholars believe were looted from the same monastery. The case has not been resolved. Princeton did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but said he did not believe the manuscript was looted in 2018.
In 2015, the Church sought the return of other manuscripts believed to have been looted from the same monastery. Duke University, Morgan Library, Lutheran Seminary in Chicago.The seminary returned the manuscript held in 2016.
Antiquities Coalition’s Davis said there are inherent risks in buying religious relics. These relics are most often intended for use within religious communities.
“There are surprisingly few legitimate sources of sacred art on the market,” she said. Davis said most religious relics were looted from monuments and tombs or stolen from religious sites.
Recent art repatriations, including France’s decision to return to Benin and the return of Cambodian artefacts after an investigation by the U.S. government, show the risks of buying art of uncertain provenance, she said. Stated.
“It’s not just individuals and amateurs who get into trouble and make mistakes,” she said. “It’s a top auction house, a top museum, a top collector.”
Kloha said his museum has slashed its takeovers and put much stricter safeguards in place.
“The procedures currently in place are very strict,” he said. “If all the details aren’t filled in, it won’t be considered. The process is very different from his ten years ago.”