The Getty Museum returns to Greece a New Testament manuscript

The Getty Museum announced that it will voluntarily return a Byzantine manuscript dated from the 12th century which refers to icons of the New Testament to the monastery of Saint Dionysios, since about 50 years ago this was illegally given to the museum.

According to the official announcement from the Getty Museum, the museum acquired the manuscript in 1983 as part of a “large, legitimate” collection .

Now the manuscript is in the Getty Museum as part of the collection "Heaven and Earth: Byzantine Illumination at the Cultural Crossroads". It has been presented in 14 exhibitions in this museum. It was also given to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1977 for the exhibition "The Glory of Byzantium".

According to the Getty Museum, a research was carried out in collaboration with the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports during the last six weeks.

Timothy Potts, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum, said in a statement: “Based on new information that came to light through this process, the museum decided that the right course of action was to return the manuscript to the Holy Monastery of Dionysiou from which it disappeared over 50 years ago.”.