‘To the Virgin of Montserrat Act or Comedy composed by the very Reverend P.Valentín Céspedes’ ands the title of a 17th century manuscript recovered by the Central Unit of Historical Heritage of the Mossos d’Esquadra when it was sold online despite being a document that belongs to the Church.
It is a theatrical piece in verse iInspired by the legend of Fra Garí de Montserrat and that it was copied from an original piece that was taken from the Monastery of Montserrat during the War of Independence against France in 1811.
It is a rare manuscript, according to the Mossos, that does not appear in any bibliographic catalog of the 17th and 18th centuries and that is of interest for the history of the Catalan theater as it is a work related to legends of Catalonia. After its recovery, the agents placed the copy in the Montserrat Library since its author, Father Valentín Céspedes, was a Jesuit of the Abbey.
Network asset tracking
Furthermore, this library allows for the conservation, protection and correct dissemination, in short, good management of the manuscript, according to the Mossos who located the copy. based on the cyber patrolling carried out on web portals specialized in the purchase and sale of antiques. Thus, on November 11 of last year, the agents found an individual who was selling old documents from medieval Catalan institutions, internal documents from City Councils, administrations of a stately and jurisdictional nature, as well as ecclesiastics.
Some of the documents had historical value and came from different documentary collections, appearing to have been extracted or looted. The seller, who was investigated by Mossos, indicated that these books and handwritten documents came from public archives.
Last February, agents specializing in historical heritage inspected the documents to determine their authenticity and detected that they contained elements that made them “public domain.” Furthermore, they were not in optimal conservation conditions. TAll of the inventory that the person under investigation had came from the inheritance of a relative who was an antiques collector. and that it had no documents of authenticity regarding its origin nor any collector’s record book, nor any inventory.
For this reason, the Mossos seized the old documents from the Administration of the Generalitat, from different City Councils, and from the Catholic Church, both in Catalonia and the rest of Spain, to carry out a cataloging and guarantee their conservation for the benefit of the general interest.
Thus, 51 documents were seized, of which 23 were returned and another 28 are considered public domain, which is why they have been deposited in archives or in accredited libraries to integrate them into their heritage collection since this guarantees their conservation. This is the case of the play about the legend of Montserrat.
The agents remember that the Archives Law details that when the owners of public documents are aware of the existence that they are in the possession of individuals, they must take measures to recover them. They add that public documents They cannot be transferred or seizedand the rights of its holders, such as the administration or the church, do not prescribe.
A Gothic cross stolen in the 80s
Through collaboration with institutions, the Mossos Historical Heritage Unit also detected a piece of high historical value that was going to be sold at auction. It is a Gothic processional cross from the 16th century that was stolen from the parish of Santa María de Sant Martí Sarroca in 1981. along with other pieces.
The thieves attacked the entrances to the church and tore off the ivory image of the Holy Christ that presided over the main altar, in addition to forcing the doors of the sacristy and steal two silver processionary crossesa Romanesque one from the 14th century and a Gothic one from the 16th century, as well as two silver chalices and two reliquaries.
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More than 40 years later, the Mossos d’Esquadra have been able to recover one of the stolen crosses, the one that belongs to the 16th century. The Bishopric of Sant Feliu de Llobregat warned that this cross was going to be sold at an auction on November 17 organized by a specialized company in this type of buying and selling antiques.
When the person in charge of the company could not prove the origin of the cross or its ownership, the agents recovered it and after authenticating it, they returned it to the Bishopric on November 10, before the auction.