Doubts cast over provenance of unearthed Sappho poems

Dealer calls Christie’s account of the papyrus manuscript a ‘fake story’, raising concerns about the legality of its removal from Egypt

When two hitherto unknown poems by Sappho were brought to light in early 2014, it was a literary sensation. The sixth-century BC poet is one of the most celebrated writers of Greco-Roman antiquity, a tender chronicler of the agonies of female desire, and a gay icon. But frustratingly few works by her survive, and those that do, largely come from ancient papyrus fragments preserved in the dry sands of Egypt.

But now the editors of a scholarly volume in which the circumstances of the discovery was detailed have formally retracted the chapter because the manuscript’s “provenance is tainted,” according to a statement issued through the book’s academic publisher, Brill.

Related: Christie's withdraws 'looted' Greek and Roman treasures

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