In 2010, the J. Paul Getty Museum was drawn into a lawsuit over a piece of art in its collection. The Armenian Church sued the Getty Museum for the return of eight pages of an illuminated manuscript called the Zeytun Gospels. The manuscript includes illustrations by medieval artist Toros Roslin. During World War I the manuscript was cleaved in two, with eight pages making the journey from Armenia to Los Angeles into the hands of the Getty collection.
UC Davis Art History Professor Heghnar Zeitlian Watenpaugh joins Insight with her new book “The Missing Pages.” The book is a biography of the illuminated manuscript that became the subject of international controversy. The book was named “New and Noteworthy” by the New York Times earlier this year. Watenpaugh traces the journey of the manuscript “through seven centuries, from medieval Armenia to the killing fields of 1915 Anatolia, the refugee camps of Aleppo, Ellis Island, and Soviet Armenia, and ultimately to a Los Angeles courtroom.”
You can see Watenpaugh present the story “From Genocide to Justice: The Modern Life of a Medieval Manuscript” at the Shrem Museum on April 25 at 7 p.m.
