THE AKRON FRAGMENTS OF THE GOSPEL OF JUDAS, if that's what they are, were conserved and photographed in January and made a public appearance yesterday:

Akron's piece of Judas puzzle unveiled to world
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Evelyn Theiss
Plain Dealer Reporter

They are tiny brown pieces of papyrus with torn edges -- smaller than a playing card, almost woodlike in their appearance -- with lettering most people wouldn't recognize.

Some of these pieces were revealed to Northeast Ohioans today via television and Web images. The fragments were photographed in an Akron law office Wednesday morning.

The fragments are believed to be part of the newly discovered Gospel of Judas, unveiled last week by the National Geographic Society. The gospel purports to record conversations between Jesus and Judas Iscariot in the last week of their lives and indicates that Judas only betrayed Jesus at his request.

R. Scott Haley made the papyrus available. The Akron attorney has been appointed receiver over art dealer Bruce Ferrini's extensive inventory of religious artifacts and antiquities.

Haley is keeping them in a secure place until the question of who owns them is resolved: whether it is Ferrini or a Swiss art dealer and the Switzerland-based Maecenas Foundation for Ancient Art.

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There are more details from the Akron Beacon Journal in "Ancient documents, book once owned by da Vinci removed from Akron vault" and from the Canton Repository in "Lawyer tries to sell papyrus bits he says have ties to Judas". The National Geographic Society says that the fragments will have to be authenticated before the Society can take a position on what they are. I hope they aren't sold off to pay Mr. Ferrini's debts!