[MSN] France's National Library sues Brooklyn dealer over manuscript (former chief curator of the library's Hebrew manuscripts, Michel Garel, has been convicted and fined in the theft of the book)

[Museum Security Network Mailinglist]

France's National Library sues Brooklyn dealer over manuscript
  

May 29, 2006, 10:55 AM EDT

NEW YORK -- France's national library has filed suit against a Brooklyn
artifact dealer, demanding the return of a centuries-old book that was
stolen before he purchased it at a New York auction, a library official
said. 

"The purpose of the lawsuit ... is to maintain the integrity of our large
and important collection of Hebrew books, manuscripts and other documents,"
the library's president, Jean-Noel Jeanneney, said in a statement. 

According to the suit, the French government obtained the 13th-century
religious manuscript in 1668. It is unclear when it vanished from the
National Library of France. 

The book, known as "Hebrew 52" among international art experts, may have
been damaged and altered during the theft, the lawsuit says. It contains the
Old Testament and five additional scrolls. 

Attorney Nathaniel Lewin said in Monday's editions of the New York Post that
his client, dealer Yosef Goldman, was prepared to work out a deal but
Christie's auction house was refusing to refund his purchase price of
$358,000. 

"Christie's is working closely with the Biblioth Geque Nationale de France
in an effort to secure the manuscript's return to France," said Christie's
vice president Toby Usnik. The auction house says it did not know the item
was stolen when it agreed to auction it. 

A former chief curator of the library's Hebrew manuscripts, Michel Garel,
has been convicted and fined in the theft of the book. He is appealing that
ruling. 

In 2005, officials at the library _ France's largest _ said they had
discovered that about 30,000 books and documents were missing during an
inventory conducted nine years earlier. 

___ 

Information from: New York Post, http://www.nypost.com