heric:

Sure seems a bit whacky that the substance of writings from antiquity can be owned, sold, and locked away like that.

I dunno. But did you know that if you gathered all the extant wood from the cross, you'd have enough lumber to build Noah's ark?

The Catholic Church was quite tight-fisted about the Shroud of Turin for many years for some reason ... but nonetheless, some non-Church-sanctioned investigators managed to do some analysis, and critiquing of the positive reports, and the "mystery" dimmed just a bit....

Cheers,