From Cnn.com

U.S. university returns 9th century Koran to Turkey
February 28, 2000
Web posted at: 3:50 PM EST (2050 GMT)

BALTIMORE (AP) -- A section of a 9th-century Koran written in gold leaf was returned to Turkey Monday by Johns Hopkins University, to be reunited with the rest of the rare document at an Istanbul museum.

The document, which comprised roughly half of the Gold Koran, disappeared from Turkey some time after 1756. It entered the Hopkins collection in 1942 as part of a bequest of rare books. It was appraised in 1998 at between $1.9 million and $2.9 million.

"I am pleased that this Koran will be now restored to its original home and reclaim its place as an important part of the Turkish national heritage," said M. Istemihan Talay, minister of culture for Turkey, during a ceremony Monday at the Turkish embassy in Washington, D.C. The first 18 chapters of the Gold Koran will now be housed with the rest of the work in the Nuruosmaniye Library.

The Gold Koran is believed to have been created in either north Africa or an area that is part of modern-day Iraq. It is written in the early Arabic script Kufa, with lettering made of gold leaf.

The missing half was last recorded in Turkey during an inventory conducted in 1756 by the Turkish government. Hopkins found out their section was part of a larger work in 1993, but had no evidence it was improperly removed from Turkey, said James G. Neal, the university's dean of libraries.

The Turkish embassy requested that Hopkins return the Gold Koran after it was displayed at the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore in 1997.

School officials decided to return it when they found the origin of the Gold Koran was unclear.