According to the website, the suspects — two Hungarians, two Slovenians, and two Croats — were hoping to receive some one billion forints (EUR 2.8m) from a foreign buyer in Ljubljana.

Acting on information from Hungarian authorities, the Slovenian police detained the suspects in Ljubljana last August, and seized three books.

Subsequent scrutiny of the evidence revealed that the books were “forgeries appearing to be religious scripts” put together using precious original components, such as pages from the 7th century, as well as other scripts from the 12th-16th centuries.

The original parts of the books are considered protected cultural heritage under international agreements, police.hu said.


Photo courtesy of police.hu