Christie’s spokesman Toby Usnik claims the auction house had no way of knowing the item was stolen, the Associated Press reported August 5. “All Christie’s wants is to work with the Bibliothèque Nationale to ensure the return of the manuscript to the library,” he said.
Goldman himself was sued in May by the French government to recover the “Hebrew 52” manuscript, which had been in the library’s possession since 1688 and may have been damaged or altered during the theft. A former senior curator of the library’s Hebrew collection, Michel Garel, was convicted in March of stealing the manuscript after pleading innocent. He was fined $500,000 and given a two-year suspended sentence, the London Telegraph reported August 7. He is now appealing the verdict.
According to the May 29 New York Post, Goldman says he has already passed the Torah on to a collector and accused Christie’s of being slow in helping return the manuscript to France.
Posted August 11, 2006.