The Schoyen Collection

The famous Schøyen Collection has come into public media in recent days in Norway. The collection is a faboulous one, one of the largest in the world, comprising from a wide area of time and space. It now has its own webpage, that brings magnificent pictures of much of the material: The Schoyen Collection. Part of its selfpresentation runs thus: “The Schøyen Collection comprises most types of manuscripts from the whole world spanning over 5000 years. It is the largest private manuscript collection formed in the 20th century.
The whole collection, MSS 1-5268, comprises 13,497 manuscript items, including 2,174 volumes. 6,850 manuscript items are from the ancient period, 3300 BC - 500 AD; 3,864 are from the medieval period, 500 - 1500; and 2,783 are post-medieval. “
The collection contains also several items that are related to the Bible, see its Bible Page.

The main reason, however, why the Collection recently has been focused in the mass media, is the fact that it contain some valuable buddhistic texts from Afghanistan and Pakistan, and it is questioned how these happpened to get into the collection.

Last Tuesday, the National Broadcasting Company (NRK), had a TV program, called Brennpunkt, where these issues where drawn into the light and questioned, and a professor of the University of Oslo who is involved, turned out to many to have a somewhat disputable role in the handling of this material. The owner himself, Martin Schøyen, refuses to be interviewed on national TV. Those understanding Norwegian can read further here: Schøyen-samlingen.

Both the authorites of Egypt and Pakistan have asked to have items they claim to belong to their national heritage returned.

The most recent news today is that the University of Oslo stops further research on the items from Afganistan: "Stopper skriftforskning .
Rektor Arild Underdal ved Universitetet i Oslo (UiO) stanser forskningen på den såkalte Schøyen-samlingen. Ifølge NRK Brennpunkt kan deler av skriftsamlingen være stjålet fra Nasjonalmuseet i Kabul i Afghanistan..
– Jeg vil foreløpig legge forskningen på Schøyen-samlingen på is til det er avklart om den skal sendes tilbake eller kjøpes av norske myndigheter, sier professor Jens Braarvig etter et møte med universitetsrektoren onsdag. "
It is hard to know what to think about all this. If it can be proven, or made probable, that the items have been acquired in illegal ways, they should most certainly be returned.

Seen in a wider perspective, these issues are problems that are not only relevant concerning the Schoyen Collection, but have a wider scholarly interest. If you have comments, use the comment field below.

Update:
I found an English presentation of this story, published by the University of Oslo: http://folk.uio.no/atleom/manuscripts.htm and obviously written by one of those more sceptical of the buddhist parts of the collection. But the pages are very informative. You may judge for yourself :)

Further links:
Manuscripts in the Schoyen Collection (by the professor involved)
Culture without Context (highly critical)