Stolen Bible back in Vienna

NEW YORK—A Bible that vanished from a Vienna library on the eve of Kristallnacht began its journey back to Austria 71 years to the day after its disappearance.

The two-volume, black leather, atlassized Bible, printed 493 years ago by Daniel Bomberg in Venice, surfaced last winter when a New York auction house advertised both volumes in a catalog and aroused the suspicion of federal authorities, who confiscated the Bible.

Kestenbaum & Company, the auctioneer who advertised the Bible, estimated its value to be $20,000 to $30,000.

The Bible’s owner, whose name will not be released, “immediately accepted their moral responsibility to have it returned, no matter what financial loss was involved,” Jackie Insel, a Kestenbaum manager, told The New York Times in an e-mail. (JTA)