Bruce Ferrini bankruptcy auction

An auction to help pay down an art and antiquities dealers' $5 million debt doesn't include the most controversial and valuable items in his collection of mostly religious artifacts.

The auction of 153 items seized from Bruce Ferrini include a 2,800-year-old strip of linen mummy wrap, inscribed with text from the Book of the Dead, and a Babylonian pottery vessel that is 3,800 years old.

Scott Haley, the lawyer charged with raising money to pay Ferrini's debts, arranged the auction of the items, some that go back hundreds of years B.C.

The items were taken from Ferrini in 2005. Despite their quality, many mainstream auction houses shied from handling the auction, which wraps up Wednesday. Dallas-based Heritage Auction Galleries is handling the sale with the items on view at Arte Primitivo Gallery in New York City.

As the article at Ohio.com notes, the pieces most disputed are not being put up for sale, most notably the fragments of the Gospel of Judas.

Posted by David on March 19, 2008 1:40 PM