An old spoil hidden in the collection of a deceased Spanish ambassador. The trail of three beautifully carved pieces of a temple of the Nabatean civilization whose main city, Petra, still marvels in 2019. A Spanish gallery owner determined to discover the origin of these jewels. And a Jordanian princess turned into a necessary accomplice of the adventure. A novel plot that tells the return home of the lost fragments of one of the altars of Khirbet et Tannur, a temple excavated eight decades ago 70 kilometers south of Petra.

"It is an incredible story with a happy ending for the recovery of archaeological pieces," Princess Dana Firas , president of the Petra National Trust, tells the world, the body that watches over the conservation of a site included since 1985 in the heritage list of Unesco. «I have to recognize and thank the essential contribution of the gallery owner. It was his decision and his behavior, tremendously honest and responsible, that made repatriation possible, ”he explains.

The main maker of this return, so far not told by the Spanish press, is Diego López de Aragón, owner of the López de Aragón Madrid gallery , the family business with which the princess acknowledges being in eternal debt. The story begins between the legacy inherited from his relatives by Juan Durán-Lóriga and Rodrigañez, a Spanish diplomat who was an ambassador to Amman in the late 1960s and who throughout his life was gathering a vast collection of art. «The owner of another antique dealer, Ángel Escorial, called me to inform me that the ambassador's nephew was selling part of his collection. We went to his house and I became interested in the archaeological pieces. There were Roman and pharaonic objects . On the ground floor I found three very attractive pieces that I thought were gothic, ”says López de Aragón, who paid 25,000 euros for these fragments belonging to the main entrance of the temple.

The detective search he undertook then was key to unveiling the true origin of the small treasure kept for decades by the diplomat and that once - with his foliage carved in the stone - he decorated the altar of a Nabatean goddess. «A month after the acquisition, the nephew called me to tell me that in the library I had found a book about the excavation of a Nabatean temple that included photographs of the fragments . I contacted a professor at Oxford University, Judith McKenzie. The first thing he told me is that these pieces were an excavation of 1936 and could not be found in Spain, ”recalls the art dealer.

The Khirbet et Tannur is a unique temple, built more than two millennia ago and famous for housing the altars of two deities. Its inscriptions and the findings recorded in its confines served to date Petra, the reddish city that spans six square kilometers and is only a small portion of the 264 kilometers that covers the entire archaeological complex. The city knew its golden age more than two millennia ago under the rule of the Nabateans, a tribe of Arab Bedouins who gave their kingdom to the Romans in 106 AD

The genesis of the pieces that López de Aragón confused with French Gothic inaugurated a research process in which Firas intervened. " I could not find any document proving that the fragments had left Jordan legally , indicating that, at some point, those pieces left the country without the knowledge of the authorities, many years ago," says the princess, a leader in the fight for the conservation of Jordanian heritage. «We do not know how they could reach the hands of the Spanish ambassador. They probably moved with the rest of the furniture in their move. In the 50s and 60s there was no legislation or control we have today, ”says Firas.

In 1937, after the excavation, the remains of the temple were distributed between the Jordanian authorities and the Cincinnati Museum of Art . Many of the pieces starred in a fleeting reunion earlier this year at an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The unknown still flies over the moment in which Durán-Lóriga and Rodrigáñez became the third owner in liza.

With the pieces of the puzzle beginning to fit, López de Aragón made a resolution. «We decided to donate them. All my management was absolutely legal but I contacted Dana and the Jordanian embassy in Spain to prepare her repatriation, ”he emphasizes. "Not everything in our profession is making money," he argues. The antiquarian lost in the donation the 25,000 euros he had paid to the ambassador's family and the benefits that the sale promised at a fair. "Our job should also be to return any object for which there is the slightest doubt."

Fruit of the cooperation between Jordanian and Spanish authorities, the three pieces ended up flying to Amman , where they are held by the department of antiques waiting to be exhibited in the Jordan Museum, where part of the Khirbet et collection is currently on display Tannur "The plan is to reconstruct the history of the site," says Firas. "This story shows the power of individuals to support the heritage of our countries and make their scraps return home," concludes the princess.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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