The History Blog:
Five years ago, the Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America filed a $105 million lawsuit against the J. Paul Getty Museum alleging that the museum was wrongfully in possession of seven pages ripped out of the 13th century Bible that belongs to the Church. Now the parties have come to an agreement: the Getty acknowledges that the Armenian Apostolic Church owns the pages; the Church donates the pages to the Getty. . . .
The Zeyt’un Gospels were commissioned in 1256 by the Catholikos, the leader of the Armenian Church, Constantine I. This Bible is the first signed works of T’oros Roslin, scribe and the greatest Armenian illuminator of the Middle Ages.
Some details from the pages, which are canon tables, a sort of index listing parallel passages in the gospels. You can download big images at the History Blog, should you wish.
3 comments:
"Now the parties have come to an agreement: the Getty acknowledges that the Armenian Apostolic Church owns the pages; the Church donates the pages to the Getty. . . ."
What?
This is like someone stealing your wallet, and when you protest they say "I'll concede that this is actually your wallet if you agree to then give it to me as a gift." How the heck does that make any sense?
Or is "donate" being used here to mean something close to "loan"? Because there's not much point in asserting your ownership of something only to immediately relinquish said ownership.
Most people assume the Getty paid them a whole lot of money. The Armenian church would like its bible back but it seems they would rather have cash.
Ahh. Need to work on my reading-between-the-lines I guess...
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