What is the ReceptioGate?
ReceptioGate is not an academic controversy.
It is the name now commonly used to describe the campaign of harassment, defamation, and character assassination that followed research into stolen and dismembered medieval manuscripts circulating on the international antiquarian market.
The documented facts at the origin of the affair concern the three illuminated leaves removed in 1979 from manuscript E.V.5 of the Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria di Torino. After their disappearance, the leaves entered the international manuscript trade and were later offered for sale at Sotheby's in London.
On 7 July 2015, the three leaves appeared as lots 49–51 in a Sotheby's sale of medieval manuscripts. The catalogue descriptions were prepared by Peter Kidd. The same catalogue also contained descriptions of leaves from the dismembered Book of Hours of Louis de Roucy, another manuscript that later became the subject of extensive reconstruction research.
Years later, after Prof. Carla Rossi published research on manuscript dismemberment, biblioclasm, and the circulation of detached manuscript leaves, and after evidence concerning stolen cultural property was transmitted to the Italian authorities, public discussion shifted away from the manuscripts themselves.
Questions concerning provenance, manuscript theft, cultural heritage protection, auction practices, and due diligence were gradually replaced by accusations directed against the researcher who had documented these cases.
The result was a prolonged campaign that included defamatory publications, online harassment, anonymous communications, fabricated obituaries, threats, and repeated attempts to undermine the credibility of both Prof. Rossi and the RECEPTIO Research Centre.
A crucial development occurred on 7 January 2026, when the Swiss Federal Administrative Court definitively closed the proceedings concerning The Book of Hours of Louis de Roucy. The Court annulled the decision of the Swiss National Science Foundation to withdraw the related research grant and found no basis for treating the work as plagiarism from Kidd's blog or for imposing sanctions. The judgment brought to an end the central allegation upon which much of the public campaign had been built.
The essential question nevertheless remains unchanged.
Why did public attention focus on allegations against a researcher while discussion of stolen manuscript leaves, manuscript dismemberment, auction catalogues, provenance research, and cultural heritage crimes largely disappeared from public debate?
This website provides primary documentation, academic publications, legal records, auction catalogues, institutional correspondence, and archival evidence that allow readers to examine the facts directly and reconstruct the chronology of the events now known as ReceptioGate.
The ReceptioGate Affair 2026: New Evidence on Peter Kidd, by Jordi Puig
🔗 https://www.kollerauktionen.ch/fr/132590-0066-1174-MAESTRO-DELLE-EFFIGI-DOMENICAN-1174_70669.html
This site presents fully documented evidence about:
-
The role of Peter Kidd in promoting the dismemberment of the De Roucy Hours
🔗 https://www.oprom.eu/post/how-peter-kidd-promoted-the-destruction-of-the-de-roucy-hours-his-collaboration-with-manuscript-dis -
The fabrication of false accusations and manipulated files
🔗 https://www.oprom.eu/post/peter-kidd-excised-leaves-and-the-illusion-of-provenance-research-2025-commentary -
The use of Kidd’s blog to slander Prof. Rossi and others
🔗 https://www.oprom.eu/post/peter-kidd-a-documented-case-of-defamation-and-concealment-from-giovanni-mazzarelli-to-receptiog
🔗 https://www.isfida.eu/post/peter-kidd-a-documented-case-of-defamation-and-concealment-from-giovanni-mazzarelli-to-receptiog -
The academic and legal response
🔗 https://www.oprom.eu/post/the-receptiogate-affair-official-documents-academic-response-and-timeline-of-events
🔗 https://www.isfida.eu/post/receptiogate-official-documents-publications-and-institutional-response
🔗 https://www.receptiogate.info/press-statements
🔍 Want to know more?
📚 Full timeline and legal documents:
🔗 https://www.receptiogate.info/timeline
🔗 https://www.receptiogate.info/faq
🔗 https://www.oprom.eu/post/the-receptiogate-affair-truth-defamation-and-the-struggle-against-manuscript-dismemberment
🔗 https://www.alta-formazione.it/post/receptiogate-spiegato-diffamazione-documenti-accuse-infondate-e-risposta-accademica
🧑🎓 Background on the institutions involved:
🔗 https://www.receptiogate.info/actors-behind-the-defamation
🔗 https://www.receptiogate.info/actors-behind-the-defamation/peter-kidd-medieval-manuscripts-provenance
🔗 https://www.receptiogate.info/actors-behind-the-defamation/societ%C3%A0-internazionale-di-storia-della-miniatura
🔗 https://www.oprom.eu/post/the-responsibility-of-the-società-internazionale-di-storia-della-miniatura-in-the-receptiogate-affai
✉️ Rebuttals, testimonies, and international support:
🔗 https://oprom.substack.com/p/documented-timeline-of-the-defamation
🔗 https://oprom.substack.com/p/facing-disinformation-with-knowledge
🔗 https://oprom.substack.com/p/all-official-sources-on-receptiogate
This is not an academic controversy.
This is the exposure of a profitable network that trades in cultural destruction — and silences those who speak up.