The US Armenian church has sued the J. Paul Getty Museum to demand the return of seven pages allegedly stolen from an Armenian Bible dating back to 1256. The Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America filed the lawsuit Tuesday in Los Angeles, ABC News reports.
The lawsuit alleged the church had the Bible authenticated in 1947 or 1948 and it was returned with the pages missing.
It states the identity of the thief was never determined.
A spokeswoman for the Getty said the museum legally acquired the pages, which is known as the Canon Tables, in 1994 from an anonymous private collector "after a thorough review of their provenance."
"A notable Armenian scholar who also was the primate of the Armenian Church of America acknowledged key details about the Canon Tables' provenance in a 1943 article, including the fact that they were owned by an Armenian family in the United States," spokeswoman Julie Jaskol said.
The seven illustrated pages by T'oros Roslin were once part of the handwritten Armenian Bible known as the "Zeyt'un Gospels."
The rest of the sacred book is located at the Mesrob Mashotots Madenataran museum in Yerevan, Armenia.
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