Harvard to return historic bells to Russian church

Nearly 80 years ago, as an antireligious ideology swept the Soviet Union and destroyed countless religious artifacts, an American industrialist saved 18 towering brass bells from Moscow's Danilovsky Monastery, buying the centuries-old treasures and donating them to Harvard.

The university's gain -- the ornate carillons have rung in the towers at Lowell House and Harvard Business School's Baker Library for decades -- was a huge loss for post-Soviet Russia.

Yesterday in Russia, a delegation from Harvard signed an agreement with officials from a resurgent Russian Orthodox Church that is expected to restore the bells to their original home in Moscow next year. In return, Harvard will receive 18 new bells, which are being cast at a foundry in southwestern Russia.

"This has been a gradual process of agreement, but today there's actual ink on the paper," said Diana Eck, a professor of comparative religion at Harvard and master of Lowell House. "It's a very important thing, not just for the Russian Orthodox Church, but for so many people in Russia, for whom this represents one of the great historic bell sets of their cultural heritage."

Their return -- Eck said Harvard officials expect the exchange to be made in June 2008 -- was made possible by Russian metals tycoon Viktor Vekselberg, who several years ago paid $90 million for nine Faberge eggs at auction in New York. He is paying for the exchange, which Eck said will cost several million dollars.

The bells, considered "singing icons" in Russia, are adorned with etchings of Christ and Mary, saints, winged angels, and scrolls of floral decoration. Most of them were cast in the 18th and 19th centuries. The largest, the Mother Earth Bell, weighs 13 tons and has a 700-pound clapper.

The bells came to Harvard at a time when Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin led a campaign to kill thousands of monks and destroy monasteries across the country. The industrialist Charles R. Crane of Chicago bought the bells from the Soviet government in 1930.

In the years since the demise of the Soviet Union, the Orthodox Church has stepped up pressure on Harvard for their return.

At the ceremony yesterday, Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II said: "We are thankful to Americans for saving these bells from melting by the Communists," The Moscow Times reported.

Eck, who did not attend but has been on previous delegations to Russia, described the replicas as "very detailed and very beautiful."

She said the agreement benefits Harvard, which plans to include training for university bell ringers.

"For years, many people here didn't know how to play the bells," Eck said. "When you hear Russian bell ringers play the bells, you know there's a lot to learn. And we hope to learn a lot."