Monday, May 17, 2010

Bruce Ferrini, R.I.P

BRUCE FERRINI, the controversial art and antiquities dealer, has died last week.
Bruce Ferrini, Akron rare book dealer, dies at 60

By Dorothy Shinn
Beacon Journal art and architecture critic

POSTED: 06:32 p.m. EDT, May 14, 2010

Akron ancient and medieval manuscripts dealer and internationally known expert on rare books, Bruce Ferrini, died Tuesday at his home in Fairlawn of natural causes.

He was 60.

The last nine years of Mr. Ferrini's life saw an abrupt reversal of the storybook career he had carved out for himself in the rarefied market of ancient and medieval manuscripts.

His decline began with the death of his son in 2001 and culminated in 2004 in a dispute over ownership of artifacts in a traveling exhibit on the Dead Sea Scrolls.

[...]
Mr. Ferrini was involved with a troubled antiquities exhibition that involved some Dead Sea Scrolls fragments from his private antiquities collection. He also was involved with finds associated with the Gospel of Judas and was in possession of some of the manuscripts. He had an exciting career that, as noted above, turned tragic over the last nine years. I have tracked many of these events in PaleoJudaica since 2004. All the posts are collected here.

Requiescat in pace.