NEW YORK — It’s an antiquities lover’s triangle, pitting France and a London-based auction house against a New York City art dealer — over a Jewish manuscript created eight centuries ago.

The dispute involves a 13th-century Torah that is believed to have been stolen from France’s government-run Bibliotheque Nationale library.

Christie’s auction house sold the centuries-old manuscript and five other scrolls to a Brooklyn antiquities dealer, Yosef Goldman, at a New York auction six years ago.

France sued Mr. Goldman, demanding its return. In July, Mr. Goldman sued Christie’s in New York, saying the auction house should not have allowed the work to be sold.

On Saturday, Christie’s defended its conduct.

“We believe his suit has no merit, and we will follow up in court,” a Christie’s spokesman, Toby Usnik, said Saturday.

Christie’s said it did not know the item was stolen when it agreed to auction it.

A former chief curator of the French library’s Hebrew manuscripts, Michel Garel, has been convicted and fined in the theft of the book. He is appealing that ruling.

Mr. Goldman is asking for a refund of the $358,000 he paid for the manuscript, according to his attorney, Nathaniel Lewin.

The dealer also accused Christie’s of being slow in helping to return the Torah to France.

All Christie’s wants is “to work with the Bibliotheque Nationale to ensure the return of the manuscript to the library,” Mr. Usnik said.

According to its suit, the French government obtained the manuscript in 1668. It is unclear when it vanished from the National Library of France. Known as “Hebrew 52” among art experts, the book may have been damaged and altered during the theft.