The Missing Pages: The Modern Life of a Medieval Manuscript, from Genocide to Justice

by Heghnar Zeitlian Watenpaugh

In 2010, the world's wealthiest art institution, the J. Paul Getty Museum, found itself confronted by a century-old genocide. The Armenian Church was suing for the return of eight pages from the Zeytun Gospels, a manuscript illuminated by the greatest medieval Armenian artist, Toros Roslin. Protected for centuries in a remote church, the holy manuscript had followed the waves of displaced people exterminated during the Armenian genocide. Passed from hand to hand, caught in the confusion and brutality of the First World War, it was cleaved in two. Decades later, the manuscript found its way to the Republic of Armenia, while its missing eight pages came to the Getty. The Missing Pages is the biography of a manuscript that is at once art, sacred object, and cultural heritage. Its tale mirrors the story of its scattered community as Armenians have struggled to redefine themselves after genocide and in the absence of a homeland. Heghnar Zeitlian Watenpaugh follows in the manuscript's footsteps 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. Reconstructing the path of the pages, Watenpaugh uncovers the rich tapestry of an extraordinary artwork and the people touched by it. At once a story of genocide and survival, of unimaginable loss and resilience, The Missing Pages captures the human costs of war and persuasively makes the case for a human right to art.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Art History, Medieval, Art, Religion

436 pages, Hardcover

First published February 12, 2019

Reviews

[Sharon Barrow Wilfong · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was not exactly what I was expecting. I thought I was going to get more information on the missing illuminate manuscripts of the Bible from Armenia. There were very few pictures.

However, there was a history of the manuscripts and the mysterious artists who created them. This history is intertwined with the Armenian genocide at the hands of the Ottoman government. From 1915-1917 an estimated 1.5 million Armenians were murdered in an effort to ethnically "cleanse" the western part of Turkey and other regions of Armenian Christians.

The author also describes the area of Armenia under Soviet rule and also how the illuminated manuscripts ended up in museums, one of which was the Paul Getty Museum in California.

The author does her best to make a case for museums creating stricter measures and criteria for museums fielding possible artifacts and making sure that they are not buying priceless work from a source that pilfered the works.

I fully understand the need for not buying stolen artwork, but where Watenpaugh goes too far is when she begins demanding that all land or work sacred to a certain ethnic group be returned, such as land sacred to Native Americans or work of art that was stolen over a hundred years ago. How can you return work to someone no longer alive?

Also, it seems to me that museums are in the best position to preserve priceless works of art, which is why the owners of so many works loan them to museums, it staves off the tax man while letting the taxpayers maintain your priceless art.

The book was OK, but I'd like to read other, less slanted sources of Armenian history and especially a source more focused on the Bible manuscripts with a greater number of photos.

[Randy Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book after listening to a talk about the efforts by Armenians to force the issue of reparations. One of the ways is to gain provenance over stolen Armenian cultural and religious artifacts. The talk focused on the Zeytun Gospels from which eight Canon tables were ripped and sold ultimately to the Getty museum. These legal efforts were only partially successful in wresting them from that institution’s control. In the end the Getty maintains possession while technical ownership resides with the Armenian church.

This book covers similar ground but goes deeper into the history of this beautiful artifact, this vandalized evidence of the Armenian genocide. It began its life protecting a fierce scrappy Armenian outpost in the Ottoman Empire that was overrun by the genocidal young Turks that destroyed Armenian heritage along with the Armenian people.

Even though this is a book about a book it is indirectly about a lost people and their ongoing and unending fight for recognition of the horror done to them. Turkey continues to fight the genocidal stain on its reputation including filing amicus briefs in California courts denying the Armenian genocide. Grief and misery is one thing but denialism fucks with the head in a completely unique and pernicious way.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm awed by the research done by Ms. Watenpaugh. Very enlightening about Armenian history and culture, the Armenian genocide, and history and ethnicity in that part of the near east. She makes a key point about destruction of culture as another aspect of genocide beyond the horror of death of millions of people. More illustrations would be great of course, but the photos do capture the wonder of Toros Roslin's work.

[Talin Keshishian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this amid the chaos of the Artsakh crisis, where our personal identities are forever masked by territorial disputes and genocide, was refreshing. It helped me shape the identity of Armenia before the genocide and gave me a lesson on a large settlement lawsuit that had happened in my own backyard 5 years ago which I never would have known of otherwise. I love being able to easily identify Toros Roslin's works of art now when I see them. Bravo to the author for the rich and well-outlined body of research completed for this novel.

[Faye · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent historical read where the author tells the story of the Armenian genocide by following precious sacred manuscripts from religious institutions to the art market and high end museums. The Armenian genocide is still not recognized as ever have occurred by the country of Turkey'

[Joanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Traces a remarkable manuscript through centuries and across thousands of miles.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book was incredibly enlightening and very rough, but the information within is so worth knowing