Joseph Lauer draws our attention to the selling off of Bruce Ferrini’s antiquities collection.

The assets were seized in late summer of 2005. Despite the quality of the goods, the major, mainstream auction houses shied away, and the sale is being conducted by the Dallas-based Heritage Auction Galleries, with the actual items on view at Arte Primitivo Gallery in New York City. Online bidding has begun and will continue until the close of business Wednesday.

And of interest to those reading here, auction items include

-A batch of biblical artifacts that includes fragments from the Book of Exodus and the Letter of Paul to the Colossians. It also includes part of the controversial Gnostic manuscript known as the Gospel of Judas.

-A large marble Assyrian relief believed to have belonged to Alexander the Great;

- Fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls, whose display at the John S. Knight Center in 2004 devolved into a contentious public squabble, with court injunctions and lawsuits over missing money, unpaid bills, and claims of fraud.

Fascinating. Read the whole report.

UPDATE: The report in the Ohio paper is erroneous in suggesting that some DSS fragments and the Judas papyri are available. No DSS or Coptic (Judas) or LXX Exodus etc can be auctioned because all of that is still contested by two parties engaged in a suit against Ferrini. The auction items are viewable here.