How Peter Kidd Promoted the Destruction of the De Roucy Hours: His Collaboration with Manuscript Biblioclast Peter Kiefer

The term #ReceptioGate does not refer to an academic dispute.

It refers to the campaign of harassment, defamation, and character assassination that followed the public documentation of stolen and dismembered medieval manuscripts circulating on the international antiquarian market.

At the centre of the affair are three illuminated leaves removed in 1979 from manuscript E.V.5 of the Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria di Torino. After disappearing from the manuscript, the leaves entered the manuscript trade and were offered for sale at Sotheby's London on 7 July 2015. The catalogue descriptions for the three lots were prepared by Peter Kidd.

The same Sotheby's catalogue also contained leaves from the dismembered Book of Hours of Louis de Roucy, another manuscript that later became the subject of scholarly reconstruction research.

Between 2022 and 2024, Prof. Carla Rossi transmitted documentation concerning stolen manuscript leaves and manuscript dismemberment to the Italian Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage (TPC) and publicly documented several cases involving cultural property.

Shortly afterwards, public attention shifted away from the provenance of the manuscripts and towards a sustained campaign directed against Rossi, RECEPTIO, her collaborators, and associated institutions.

The campaign included defamatory publications, anonymous communications, online harassment, fabricated obituaries, threats, and repeated allegations of academic misconduct.

On 7 January 2026, the Swiss Federal Administrative Court definitively closed the proceedings concerning The Book of Hours of Louis de Roucy, annulled the withdrawal of the related research grant, and found no basis for treating the publication as plagiarism or for imposing sanctions.

In 2009, German antiquarian Peter Kiefer initiated the systematic dismemberment of the Book of Hours of Louis de Roucy — an intact, richly illuminated 15th-century manuscript —, cutting the codex into individual leaves and miniatures for commercial gain.

Within months, the first dismembered folia appeared at auction in Germany (Reiss & Sohn; Hartung & Hartung). From there, a second figure entered the scene: Peter Kidd, blogger and freelance manuscript consultant. Under the guise of “documenting” provenance on his blog mssprovenance, Kidd in fact played a key commercial role in the manuscript’s destruction.

Evidence published by Prof. Carla Rossi (Studj Romanzi XVIII, 2022; The Book of Hours of Louis de Roucy, 2022–2023) shows that Kidd:

• Collaborated directly with Peter Kiefer, serving as intermediary for certain high-value leaves;

• Authored auction catalogue entries for miniatures sold at Sotheby’s;

• Promoted the dismembered folia on his blog mssprovenance, where he selectively cited sales while omitting any condemnation of Kiefer’s actions;

• Maintained contact with collectors and auctioneers, facilitating the passage of leaves from private hands to major commercial platforms.

While Peter Kiefer physically dismembered the manuscript, Peter Kidd provided the narrative, visibility, and academic cover that enabled the leaves to be laundered into legitimate markets. Without Kidd’s involvement, the cultural and monetary value of the individual folia would have been significantly lower.

The OProM unequivocally denounces this collaboration and urges cultural institutions, libraries, and scholarly networks to re-evaluate their associations with individuals who participate in or enable the destruction of manuscript heritage.

#PeterKidd #mssprovenance #PeterKiefer #DeRoucyHours #ManuscriptDismemberment #AuctionEthics #IllicitManuscriptTrade #CulturalHeritage #ReceptioGate #biblioclasm