Russian church bell returns from Harvard

MOSCOW, Sept. 8 (UPI) -- A church bell has made its way back to Moscow after chiming in a Harvard University tower for more than 70 years.

The two-ton bell is the first of 18 bells being returned to St. Daniel’s Monastery, decades after they were sold by the Bolsheviks, RIA Novosti reported Saturday.

After Soviet authorities shut down the monastery, they sold the bells -- some of which were centuries old -- to U.S. industrialist Charles Crane for the price of their bronze.

Crane donated the bells to Harvard University, where they have been chiming on holidays and football game days ever since.

After more than two decades of negotiations, a deal was reached whereby all 18 bells will be repatriated by fall 2008, the news agency reported.

In exchange, the Russian cultural heritage foundation Svyaz Vremyon agreed to assume transport costs, and replicas of the bells were cast for Harvard University.

Before the replicas’ departure, they were blessed by Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Alexy II.