An art detective known as the “Dutch Indiana Jones” announced Tuesday that hapless thieves anonymously returned a relic said to contain the blood of Jesus Christ.
Celebrated detective Arthur Brand said a friend of one of the thieves contacted him by email, revealing that the relic, contained in an ornate golden box, was stolen by thieves who did not know what it was. “To have the ultimate relic, the blood of Jesus in your home, stolen, that’s a curse,” he told AFP in an interview. “When they realized what it was, that you in fact cannot sell it, they knew they had to get rid of it.”
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Brand said he received his first tip just a few days after the June 1 theft, in which thieves locked in Normandy’s Fecamp Abbey overnight stole the sacred relic, along with several other church items. The news shocked Catholics at the time, as the relic was one of the most sacred ever to be stolen. Pilgrims had flocked to Fecamp Abbey to venerate the relics for nearly 1,000 years. Jean-Luc Brunin, bishop of Le Havre, head of the robbed diocese, expressed grief over the theft, declaring it an attack against all Christians, according to the Times.
Brand’s reputation as a respected art detective resulted in the thieves anonymously reaching out to him through their friend, as they feared jail time if they attempted to return the relic to the abbey directly. After weeks of discussions with the thieves anonymously, Brand was finally able to arrange for the thieves to drop the relic off at his house. The relic was delivered in a cardboard box, along with several other stolen items.
Brand, a Catholic himself, described his retrieval of the ornate relics as “a religious experience.”
“This is as close as one can get to Jesus Christ, The Knights Templar and the Holy Grail. As a Catholic myself and a huge Dan Brown fan, it doesn’t get any better …” he added in a Tuesday tweet.
This is as close as one can get to Jesus Christ, The Knights Templar and the Holy Grail. As a Catholic myself and a huge Dan Brown fan, it doesn’t get any better… pic.twitter.com/o6nGPI2rUc
— Arthur Brand (art detective) (@brand_arthur) July 12, 2022
Brand will hand the artifacts over to Dutch police on Tuesday, who will then deliver them to French police, who will return them to Fecamp Abbey. The Vatican has not commented publicly on the series of events.
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Hailed as “the world’s greatest art detective,” Brand has spent 30 years recovering lost art, by his estimation saving several dozen works worth up to $302 million, according to a BBC profile.