paris (jta) | Stolen rare manuscripts, a wealthy Israeli antiques dealer, underground passageways in Paris and a curator who maintains his innocence — it’s a story that could easily tempt Dan Brown to write a follow-up to his best-selling “The Da Vinci Code.”
Michel Garel, who since 1980 has been the head of the Hebrew manuscripts division of the Bibliotheque nationale de France, or the French National Library, was arrested in July 2004 for allegedly stealing rare manuscripts, including five Hebrew manuscripts from the Middle Ages and 121 pages torn from precious manuscripts from the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. Several anonymous letters to the president of the library had implicated Garel, though not by name. The accusations then were seconded by David Sofer, a London-based Israeli antiques dealer who said he bought a manuscript from Garel in 2000, without knowing it was stolen, for some $90,000.
Sofer said he had also bought other manuscripts from Garel, for up to $500,000.
The case against Garel collapsed on a technicality, but Sofer recently renewed his allegations. Garel was brought before an investigating judge in late June on suspicion of aggravated theft. No formal charges have been filed against him.
Initially Garel admitted to having stolen one manuscript, No. 52, believed to be among the oldest existing versions of the Torah, copied in France in approximately 1250 and bound in Italy in the 15th century.
He also admitted to forging a certification document to sell the rare Torah manuscript at a foreign auction. The manuscript was resold at Christie’s, the New York auction house, in 2000.
The day before his June court appearance, however, in a plot twist worthy of the best international thrillers, Garel renounced his confession, insisting that he was innocent of all the thefts and that he had told Paris police under duress that he had stolen manuscript No. 52 “in order to avoid being put in prison.”
“I never received so much as a centime for any piece belonging to [the library] or any other public collection,” Garel told France’s Le Figaro newspaper last week.
“I am the ideal whipping boy” for a massive security breach at the library, he said. Garel blamed his legal woes on the alleged vindictiveness of his superiors, with whom he said there was always tension.
The French National Library, founded in the 16th century and home to some 35 million books, documents, manuscripts, and other items, has refused to comment on the case.