Part of it is being sold-in small pieces.
Nearly 70 years after discovering the world's oldest Bible manuscript, the Palestinian family, originally sold to academics and institutions, is now quietly pitching leftovers-The family says debris that has been kept in Swiss safes for years.
Most of the leftovers are not postage. stamp-
Some of them are blank.
But over the past few years, evangelical Christian collectors and institutions in the United States have come up with millions of dollars for this archaeological treasure.
This infuriated the Israeli government Antiquities Authority, which holds most of the scrolls, which claims that every last scrap should be treated as an Israeli cultural property and threatened to confiscate more access to the market.
"Many years ago, I told Kando that, as far as I'm concerned, he could die with those scrolls," the authority reversed-
Speaking of William Cardo, he keeps his family's collection of Dead Sea Scrolls.
"The only address for Scroll is the state of Israel.
"Kando said that his family provided the remaining debris to the Antiquities Authority and other Israeli institutions, but they could not afford it.
"If anyone is interested, we are ready to sell," Kando told The Associated Press sitting in the Jerusalem antiquities store he inherited from his late father.
"This is the most important thing in the world.
"The world of holy relics is full of theft, deception and geopolitics, and the Dead Sea Scrolls are no exception.
In 1947, they were found in caves in the Dead Sea east of Jerusalem, one of the greatest archaeological events of the 20 th century.
The academic debate on the meaning of rolling continues to attract high attention
The Jordanian and Palestinian governments have put forward their own claims of ownership.
But few people know about the recent gold rush for debris-or Israeli intelligence --
Try to keep track of their sales.
About 2,000 years ago, the manuscript was written mainly on animal skin parchment paper, the earliest copy found in the Hebrew Bible, and the oldest written evidence of the Jewish and Christian roots of the Holy Land.
They are also important as they include non-Hebrew originals
Only the normative works that survived the ancient translation, because they proved the multiple versions of the Old Testament works that were circulated before the Saints of about 10 ad in 100.
While some scrolls are almost identical to the traditional Hebrew text of the Old Testament, many contain notable variations.
The reels are well preserved in dark, dry caves, but for centuries most of them have been split into pieces of all sizes.
Ten Commandments written on the scroll of the Dead Sea (Photo: AP)
Israel regards the scroll as a national treasure and retains its share under security and climate --
Government-controlled
The laboratory of Jerusalem Israel Museum Campus.
Pnina Shor, who is in charge of the scroll collection of the Antiquities Authority, said that the number of fragments is so high-at least 10,000-that the staff has not fully counted.
Israel has been criticized for restricting academic access, but is working with Google to upload scroll images online.
How most Dead Sea Scrolls ended in the hands of Israel, a story that began with a Bedouin shepherd who threw a stone in a dark cave and heard some broken voices.
He found the pots. some of them were rolling.
Scroll up inside
After the return visit, he and his Bedoin companions found seven volumes of ancient scrolls.
They sold three of them to professors at the Hebrew University through antique dealers, and four to William Cando's father. A Christian cobbler in Bethlehem later sold them to the Archbishop of the Assyrian Orthodox Church.
On the eve of 1948 Arabs
During the Israeli war, the archbishop smuggled the scrolls to the United States and advertised them in the Wall Street Journal's classified advertisement.
Igor Aden, the hero of the Israeli War, was later the former of Israel.
Prominent archaeologists bought them through a facade.
Over the next decade, archaeologists dug up thousands of reel fragments in caves in the Dead Sea area and began assembling them like puzzles at The Rockefeller Archaeological Museum in East Jerusalem, then ruled by Jordan.
The Bedouin also found the debris and sold it to Kando, who sold most of it to the museum.
Other pieces were collected by Jordan and France countries, as well as universities in Chicago, Montreal and Heidelberg, Germany.
In 1967 Middle East wars, Israel occupied the Rockefeller collection and sent eight kilometres of soldiers to Bethlehem in the West Bank (five miles)
It is rumored that Kando held another important meeting in southern Jerusalem.
After a brief imprisonment, Kando displayed the parchment scroll in the shoe box under the bedroom floor tiles and, according to Yadin's written description, sold it to the Israeli authorities for $125,000.
It is called the scroll of the Temple because it describes in part the construction of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. At 8. 15 meters (26. 7 feet)
It is the longest ever.
But Kando surrendered much more than he did to Israel.
His son, William, said his father had hidden pieces, which he eventually transferred to Switzerland in the medium term. 1960s.
In 1993, the scholars finally began to publish Israel-
Kando died, and he bequeathed the pieces he secretly collected to his son.
This is the best time to sell.
Martin Schoyen, a 73-year-old Norwegian businessmanyear-
A year later, the old collector of Bible manuscripts purchased his first Dead Sea Scroll clip, says Torleif Elgvin, a scholar at Schoyen's collection.
He eventually purchased a total of 115 pieces, many of which were purchased from Kando, and some from an American scholar and a British scholar who, after discovering the pieces
Elgvin said that a few years ago, Schoyen suffered financial losses in a commercial investment and was unable to continue collecting scrolls.
William Kando then brought his business to the United States, and the surprising manuscript collector did not know that there was any scroll material available for purchase.
"These are all obstacles that I have experienced with collectors in the US," said Lee Biondi, a California dealer who sells art on behalf of Kando.
"This is impossible;
People say you can't get a piece of Dead Sea Scroll.
This is impossible.
"According to Azusa's 2009 tax bill, in 2,478,500, Asuza Pacific University, a evangelical Christian college near Los Angeles, bought five pieces and biblical artifacts for $2010.
The Academy said they purchased the pieces through Biondi and private collections.
Kando told The Associated Press that he was the source of all the debris.
Between 2009 and 2011, Southwest Baptist Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas negotiated with Kando to acquire eight pieces of debris that the Kando family kept in UBS bank's safe deposit box in Zurich, according to a book published last year by the son of Dean of seminary, Armour Patterson.
The seminary did not disclose the amount of the acquisition, but one family said it had donated $1 million for the show, and the other said it had donated $500,000 for the purchase of Leviticus fragments, according to the Houston Chronicle.
Bruce McCoy of the seminary said that this reel fragment includes paragraphs in chapters 18 and 20 on the law of sexual morality, and has a special price tag due to the importance of the text.
"From the word of God to the global culture of today, this paragraph is an eternal truth," said McCoy . ".
In 2009 and 2010, owners of green homes, evangelical Christians in the city of Orama, and Hobby Lobby arts and crafts retailers bought 12 pieces for their private collection, the world's largest rare Bible manuscript.
Jerry patengel, who is in charge of the Green series scrolls, will not say who sold the scrolls and how much they sold, and Kando denies that they came from his collection.
Collection delegates from Norway and the United States say they will publish their research on these works in a few years.
Pattengale only provides a basic list of the Green series of fragments: including materials from Genesis to Leviticus;
Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Jonah, Micah, Daniel, Nehemiah.
A poem and a mysterious extra
A Biblical Hebrew document known as a teaching text.
"They are really small, but they are important because you may have two or three lines that you can't find anywhere else.
Suddenly, it adds a lot to the history of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
"At least one of the findings is quite amazing. "He said a non
The disclosure agreement prohibits him from disclosing prior to the publication of the findings.
He estimates this will be released in about 18 months and published by Brill, the leading publisher of the Dead Sea Scrolls scholarship.
For decades, academic visits to scrolls have been strictly controlled by a small number of researchers.
Access is now more free, but there is limited digital sharing of artifacts between Israel, Schoyen and American institutions.
The government is also vying for ownership of the scrolls, a dispute that stems from 1948 Arabs --
The Israeli War and the re-demarcation of the border changed control over the desert area where the scrolls were discovered.
Palestinian officials claim the right to have these materials because they were found in today's West Bank, and Jordan claims the right to have them, because these materials were discovered during the reign of the territory, when the scrolls were exhibited by the Israeli government abroad, neither of them successfully requested the confiscation of the scrolls.
Sponsored exhibitions.
Israel regards the scroll as its national heritage and says all debris should be placed in its large warehouse for best preservation and research.
Ganor of the antiquities authority said that under Israeli law, all scrolls located abroad were illegally removed.
"Whoever bought these things has the risk of the state of Israel suing," Ganor said . ".
But Kando said his father transferred the debris to Switzerland in the middle of the year. 1960s -
Prior to Israel's adoption of 1978 laws, unauthorized removal of antiquities from the country was prohibited.
California dealer Biondi said that if there is no private collection that can pay large sums of money, debris will still be tortured in candos's safe box
And the important historical discovery will not see a bright day.
"Taking these things out of the vault is a bit like a rescue operation," Biondi said . ".
Kando won't say how many pieces remain in his family's collection.
But Israeli officials have been watching his sales plan closely since 1995.
And communication between dealers and middlemen.
To determine what Dead Sea Scrolls his family left behind.
They estimate that about 20 pieces remain in Kandos.
The Associated Press was allowed partial access to the contents of the Israeli confidential file-a thick red binder, including a copy of a foreign passport, a photo of a small reel fragment, a letter from kando to potential buyers, and the informant's testimony about trying to sell.
One such testimony claimed that on 2007,
A well-known professor in Jerusalem offered to sell life-saving debris to American dealers for $250,000.
A document dated May 17, 2012, labeled "confidential", lists 11 scrolling clips and their sizes, only a few centimeters in size.
Israel is eager to get a scrap from Kando in particular: a well
Kando claims that the preserved pieces of Genesis are shaped like butterflies, the size of which is equivalent to the grain box-"the largest piece in a private hand ".
About five years ago, Shlomo moussai, an Israeli diamond billionaire and antique collector, offered to buy the diamond and donate it to the country.
Ganor of the Israeli Antiquities Authority says Kando's price is about $1.
2 million is too high.
The clip includes passages that tell the story of Joseph and takes the ancient
Hebrew, the script of the ancient Israelites
Trace the Jewish people in the Hebrew neighborhood around the 5 th century. C.
Still in use today.
The Kando family agreed to present the first time in the exhibition of the Southwest Baptist Seminary the fragments of Genesis.
After the exhibition ended in January, Kando said that the debris returned to his family's Swiss safe and was still installed in a glass frame showing the debris.
According to Pattengale of the Green Collection, Kando is said to have asked for $40 million to buy the work of Genesis.
Kando will not disclose the financial details of his transaction and says his family is currently not involved in any new negotiations on additional rolling sales.
Scholars believe that the fragments of Kando are true because when the scrolls were discovered, his father was directly involved in the sale of the scrolls.
In recent years, new reel debris from the Dead Sea region has surfaced from different sources.
On 2005, Israeli police raided the residence of Hanan Eshel, an Israeli Scroll scholar, after he facilitated the purchase of scroll debris from a Bedouin, he said he found the debris in a cave a year ago.
The fragments have nothing to do with the Dead Sea Scroll bank, but were found in the same area, dated 2nd th century. D.
Prior to the raid, Eshel had handed the pieces to the Israeli authorities and said he had never intended to buy them for himself, but the Israeli Antiquities Authority said he was an illegal act.
Eshel passed away on 2010. In mid-
2010, a group of 30 Israeli undercover agents and officials conducted surveillance at the Hyatt House in Jerusalem, posing as interested buyers, and seized a piece of paper dating back to the 2nd th century. D.
Palestinian businessmen who offered the sale of papyrus were arrested.
It may be more ancient manuscripts, even the Dead Sea Scrolls, still hidden in caves next to the Dead Sea, the lowest point on Earth, waiting to be discovered.
Lenny Wolf, a Jerusalem manuscript dealer, said many cave entrances were hidden by vegetation and rock waterfalls, or their proximity was eroded.
"I wouldn't be surprised if I could find more material," Wolf said . ".