Russian Parliament passes bill on Hungarian library restitution

Moscow, July 1 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's lower house of parliament, the State Duma, passed a library restitution bill after its first reading Friday.

The bill provides for the return to Hungary of 134 theological books removed from the Hungarian Reformist Church's Sarospatak College during World War II.

Culture Minister Alexander Sokolov told the Duma that according to ministry experts, the Sarospatak College's library is of much historical, artistic and scholarly value.

Earlier this year, Russia's Interagency Council for Art Treasures Displaced during WWII advised that the ministry recognize the legitimacy of the Hungarian government's claim to the Sarospatak library since it had been owned by a religious organization and had never been used to promote the interests of militarism or Nazism, Sokolov said.

He said that in April, the Hungarian Parliament had adopted a resolution that all displaced Russian art objects found in Hungary should be immediately returned.

Since 2001, Russia has recovered as many as 29 of its displaced art and culture treasures, Sokolov said, adding that the belfry of St. Daniel's Monastery was now on its way back to Moscow from Harvard University.