Has rare bible been auctioned abroad? (From This is Hampshire)

Has rare bible been auctioned abroad?

5:30am Thursday 17th May 2007 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
•  

WORSHIPPERS at a Hampshire church fear a treasured Bible is being hawked around antique markets in the US or Far East for a four-figure sum.

The historic 18th century Bible was snatched from St Mary's Church in Twyford last month.

The crook was captured on CCTV and is seen coming into church with a panama-style hat obscuring his face. Minutes later he leaves, but soon after returns carrying a plastic bag.

Police believe the plastic bag contained a replacement bible which the thief placed in the display cabinet he had managed to unlock. His deception meant that the theft of the bible was not spotted for two weeks.

Nigel Close, a parishioner who looks after the church's CCTV, said: "He was professional.

"He was careful to take his hat off when he was away from the camera, so no one would see him wearing a hat in church for too long.

"It is very frustrating. The Bible is probably in the US or the Far East. It is like archaeology - when you take something out of its context it loses something. It was our Bible."

The book was a rare example of a "Vinegar Bible" printed with a misprint in Oxford in 1717. The printer John Baskett mistakenly transposed the word "vinegar" with "vinyard" in Luke, chapter 20.

Police are linking the Twyford theft with one in Farley Chamberlayne, near Romsey. A series of seven volumes of the Old and New Testament, dating from 1800, were stolen from St John's Church.