"Pursuing Papyri
and Papyrology by Way of eBay:
A Preliminary Report"
to the 25th International Congress of Papyrology, 3 August 2007
(University of Michigan, Ann Arbor)
[Abstract] Starting early in 2005, bits of papyri began to appear on the eBay online auction site. Now two years later, nearly 1000 lots have been sold (cartonnage, Greek, Coptic, Demotic, Hieratic, Arabic, etc.), and more are scheduled to appear. These are from the holdings of a bankrupt antiquarian (Bruce Ferrini) required to sell his extensive stock of various antiquities and related materials by a lawcourt judgment. I have been monitoring the papyri sales since about August of 2005, and will provide a survey of the situation in this presentation. Fortunately the eBay images are of relatively good quality and may in the long run be of help in attempting to keep track of these now widely dispersed materials, as well as helping to re-unite (virtually, at least) larger pieces that were dismembered for the sales.
Paper:
In September of 2005,
art collector/dealer Bruce
P. Ferrini declared bankruptcy [images of news clips]
after several months of trying to keep
his financial ship afloat including the gradual sale of the holdings of
his
Akron Ohio (USA) store in an attempt to meet the demands of the
lawsuits
which he had lost.\1/ These holdings were extensive, ranging from very
ancient
items such as clay tablets [image]
to very modern ones such as recently
published exhibit
catalogs [image]. Included
were hundreds of papyri and related fragments
in the
usual languages of
Minimal documentation accompanied the Ferrini/Farr eBay sales [image], usually in
the form of language identification (although confusion between Greek
and Coptic was not infrequent, and also between Demotic and Hieratic),
dimensions in millimeters (with the usual problem of measuring
irregular shapes), and some vague attempt at identifying content or at
least of using descriptions [image] that might encouraging bidding (e.g. "business document," "secret text," "mathematical treatise").
Occasionally there would be specific information about the text, as
with the hieratic linen clippings from the Book of the Dead [image] (see
further below), or hier102 [image] ("
My inquiry to the active seller, Michael J. Farr, about the source(s)
of the papyri produced the following response (to which I have added
a few identification notes) [image of this text]:
What we
have
in our possession is one collection [i.e. Ferrini's] made from several
purchases.
There are no records and no way of figuring exactly what pieces came
from which particular purchase. There are too many fragments and
not enough past records of the transactions. But from Mr.
Ferrini's recollection he bought them from the following:
1986 from a Paris private collection [probably Guy
Ladrière (dealer)]
1987 from a Paris private collection [probably Guy Ladrière
(dealer)]
1990 from Sam Fogg,
London [collector and dealer]
1992 Michael Sadhig [unknown; probably of Sadigh Gallery,
NYC]
1995 K. Rendell (ex. James Ede) ["London
Antiquities market 1960 James Ede and Kenneth Rendell, to anonymous
donor 1997"; Coptic fragment; "Special
Visit Ministry" site]
1998 Pars Antiques, London
[dealer, with associations to Ferrini and
Schoyen]
1999 Sam Fogg, London [see above, 1990]
2001 F. Nussberger, Zurich [Frieda Tchacos Nussberger
// Nussberger-Tchacos; Gospel of Judas, etc.]
The papyri we are selling were a part of each of these sales, however,
the sales included other more important papyri that were already sold
as part of another business. We have no access to the other
papyri that had been already sold nor their records.
Since it was also my intention to offer a
papyrology seminar [image] in the near future
(it took place in fall 2006), I began to bid on some
of the cartonnage fragments, for my own research and to
offer students experience in separating and conserving papyri as well
as
attempting to decipher the writing. I was successful in purchasing 45
lots of cartonnage (some containing multiple small pieces), at an
average cost
of about $35 each. These proved extremely useful
as teaching and learning aids, and some of the results can be consulted
on the course web page.[link]
At least one larger cartonnage panel of which there is a published
photo from when it was still intact [image] had been cut up and sold
in
separate pieces, including some split layers -- thus creating a three
dimensional puzzle for any reconstruction [image]. I was fortunate enough
to
have purchased a couple of pieces of this panel in which the layers
were all present, with the
decorated plaster on one side and unpainted plaster on the other.
Inbetween were six layers which I succeeded in separating [image]. Those layers
contained mostly (Hieratic and?) Demotic texts, attesting the Ptolemaic date of the
panel.
Early in 2006, I created a file
with accompanying images and the coded identifications of the eBay
purchasers (with the seller's permission) [image file] and placed it on a
temporary
web page, in an attempt both to keep track of where the pieces of
papyri were going, and to to assist in contacting buyers to find out
more about the earlier sales that had taken place before I became
involved. Unfortunately, in July 2006 one of the buyers (actually an
agent for others) objected to this exposure, and the seller thenceforth
removed all identifications of buyers from the sales information. Thus
I have no way of knowing who the purchasers were from July 2006 onward,
except for a few with whom I did establish contact on the basis of the
earlier information.
One of the early purchasers, David Howell, had special interest
in the hieratic linen
pieces, and has been able to show that many of them originated from the
right side of a large piece of the Book of the Dead which had been pictured intact [image] in the earlier exhibition books from as recently as
2004. Howell's overlaid image shows how extensively this material was mutilated for the sales [image] Whether the left side of the original piece went to
Ferrini's litigants (or was held in court-ordered custody) or perhaps
was sold as such by
Ferrini remains to be determined. I also made contact with another
earlier
buyer, Alexander
Mihaylovich of Los Angeles, who
successfully bid on a group of small fragments [image] in which I was
able to identify, through the eBay image, a scrap of Homer's Iliad, and
the new owner has given me permission to publish the fragment
(which can be
seen on my web page [image]).
It is the only Greek literary fragment to
be identified thus far from the images, although not the only neatly written Greek hand represented [grk030r].
The Coptic pieces, and especially the small brittle fragments of
literary hands (often only parts of a letter or two! [image]), sold for more on
average than the Greek, probably because it was rumored that Ferrini
still possessed pieces of the Gospel of Judas, the Epistles of Paul,
and some other Sahidic works of similar value. Bids
went as high as
$260 for a group of three small scraps [cop094],
with the average winning
bid on the 58 "literary" lots being $ 53.61 (the lowest winning bid was
a mere $05.50 for three small scraps [cop127]).\3/ One buyer of scholarly
orientation with whom I am in contact, Ernest
Muro, has identified a small Coptic fragment of Paul's letter to the Philippians
[cop045] among his purchases,
so there may have been some truth to the
rumors.
Other Coptic pieces, mostly
obviously
documentary or paraliterary, ranged in price from $ 08.50 [cop046-2] to $141.38 [cop081], with an average price
of $42.33 (on 79 pieces). They include
part of a note from a monk, reconstructed from three cut pieces [cop24-26], which fortunately is
in the hands of someone (E. Muro) who plans to
publish it, and what appears to be a folded and wrapped page [cop 014], in need of
careful flattening. Another note mentioning personal names ("I MAROUTI
... and I PAMOUNT[I]") is more extensive (and more legible) than many of the other
fragments [cop111a]. An
interesting Greek monastic piece [image] advertized as "Coptic" and offered by another seller is also worth mention.
Some Demotic pieces also often brought relatively higher prices, and
one large Demotic documentary panel [image] that had been cut into at least 22
pieces that I can document (and probably a couple of additional pieces
unknown to me) cost the various buyers (including
myself, for one inexpensive token piece) a total
of $761.72 , for an average price of $34.62 (from a low of $13.08 to a
high of $84.00).\4/ What the panel would have fetched when it was still
intact is anyone's guess, but I suspect it would be much less than the
$760 plus that was realized through the dismemberment.
Nearly 90 lots of what the seller described
as "magical" text -- which resembles what has been classified in other collections as artificial or "fake" writing, although not necessarily of modern origin [see Arabic on verso of fake28]
-- were
purchased by various bidders, for prices ranging from a low of $02.45 [fake59] to a high of $371.00 (one hopes it was an unintentional bid [$37.10 makes more sense?], soon corrected?) [fake37], but on
average only
$27.60. These, like the hieratic linens, appear to have been cut from
larger panels [fake74+] and
the $2400 total for these sales was undoubtedly much
more than the original small number of panels of disputable
significance would have brought if sold intact!
Which brings us to the Greek materials -- about 250 lots, with some understandable confusion between Greek and Coptic fragments. The winning bids ran from a bargain $2.25 [gk144] to $399.00, an uncleaned Ptolemaic piece from Sam Fogg's collection [gk239], with the average cost of $39 per lot. The seller sometimes put a "reserve" price (e.g. $299, but as high as $1000) on what were thought to be the more valuable pieces, but usually did not find bidders willing to spend that much. (Higher reserves also were sometimes put on the line drawings [image] on some Hieratic linens -- this one finally sold for $400, after twice failing to meet the $1,000 reserve -- and lower reserves on some other items in each language group.)
Finally, the handful of Arabic pieces also exhibited the now familiar slicing of a larger panel into multiple items [Arab02+03], which in this case together brought the seller $53.38 from the two different bidders. Another Arabic fragment sold for $102.50 [Arabic01] while the rest were more modestly priced.
Conclusions:
These heterogeneous materials contain many
interesting items, especially for students of documentary evidence.
Fortunately, the images supplied on eBay are usually adequate for
detailed study, although it will seldom be possible to identify the
current owners. (Many buyers seem to be agents for others, or
themselves owners of antiquarian shops, purchasing for resale.) For
papyrologists who enjoy puzzles, there is much to be done here, and
some of the reconstructed panels (such as the large demotic panel [image]) will prove to be worth
closer examination. The cartonnage painted pictures and designs [images] may
also have some value for art historians, while the layers of
papyrus to which they adhere will probably carry their mysteries,
and/or treasures, into obscurity, with a few exceptions.
Hopefully many of the widely distributed items will ultimately find
their way into publicly accessible museum and library collections, but
that will probably be for later generations to discover and explore.
Meanwhile, the electronic image library remains as our main link to
these scraps of ancient activity, and I hope interested parties will
take advantage of it as another aspect of papyrological research.
--NOTES--
\1/ A complicated affair. Three private
collectors -- Ferrini, Lee Biondi (a California antiquities expert) and
William H. Noah (physician) -- had put together a
traveling exhibit called "From the DSS to the English Bible" (or
similarly), which ran in Dallas in 2003 under the sponsorship of the
company "HisStory, LLC [Limited Liability Company]" created to handle
the exhibit. One of the partners, William H. Noah, sued the other
partners (Biondi and Ferrini) for his share of the profits from the
shows, and the company filed for bankruptcy in February 2004. Other
creditors also sued. The bankruptcy court took the exhibit in hand when
it opened in Akron in April 2004 and prohibited Ferrini from further
involvement. Meanwhile, Biondi, who had never officially signed on as a
partner in "HisStory LLC," organized his own exhibit after the breakup,
using a similar "Dead Sea Scrolls" title [book image], and
Noah also started his own traveling exhibit, called "Ink & Blood." [weblink or book image]
Ferrini later filed for bankruptcy, in Sept 2005. According to reports
of the
filing, he owes nearly 100 creditors between $4.6 million
and $10 million -- $2.7 million of it to Akron's First Merit bank. His
separated wife, Pamela, also filed for bankruptcy and Ferrini put his
expensive house in Bath Ohio up for sale in 2006. Ferrini had led a
successful
career as an art collector and dealer, but apparently was both careless
and deceptive in
his flamboyant management style, and also suffered a crushing personal
blow with the tragic death of his son Matthew in 2001. His involvement
in the
saga of the Gospel of Judas and associated papyri (Sahidic “First Apocalypse of
James” and “Epistle of Peter to
Philip,” LXX Exodus, Sahidic Epistles of Paul, Greek "mathematical
treatise") is vaguely documented [Muro weblink], although the full story is
yet to be
uncovered and recorded.
\2/ The breakdown is as follows (figures are
approximate):
150 cartonnage [+ especially Demotic layers, sold as Demotic]
250 Greek [and/or ambiguous "Coptic"]140 Coptic [58 + 79 images, + several unimaged (or misidentified)]
175 Demotic [including some cartonnage layers]
115 Hieratic (mostly on linen, but a few on papyrus)009 Arabic
094 Ancient Fakes (sold as "secret text from a religious sect")
075 Aramaic inscribed on lead (often illegible)
006 "Magic Bowl" fragments (pottery)
\3/ The pieces that seem to be "literary" and/or from a codex include:
[c019]cop13 [cod lower mg] = 7366537739- @ $ 40.99 bwanito
These fragments came from the Gardner papyri sold at Sothebys back in the early 90's. (28fe06)
cop050-2 = 7393570568 0??x?? [r uncial grk?] @ $ 66.99 emuro (04mr06)-cop097 = 120065553903 023x09 [r, uncial] @$102.50 private (23de06)
-cop098 = 120066783423 018x14 [r,
uncial] @$152.50 private
(26de06)
-cop099 = 120067055525-2
015x01 013x13 [r,r cd] @$ 21.86 private
(27de06)
-cop100 = 120067375474-2
015x08 [r,r? uncial] @$ 16.27 private
(30de06)
-cop101 = 120068597656-2
012x03 [r,r ?? uncial] @$
59.00 private
(06ja07)
-cop102 = 120071330012 015x07 [r
uncial] @$129.50 private
(10ja07)
-cop121 = 120090621986-3 015x07 [r&v] @$ 50.00 private (02mr07)
-cop122 = 120091714014-3 015x07 [r&v]
@$ 21.50 private
(05mr07)
-cop123 = 120093152265-2
015x07 [r&v]
@$ 34.00 private
(09mr07)
