The E-Sylum:  Volume 8, Number 35, August 14, 2005, Article 13

RARE MAPS STOLEN FROM LIBRARIES

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette today published a report on
thefts of rare maps from libraries across the country:

"An X-acto blade can slit a page from a book in less than
a second, and police say that's how a well-known rare-
documents dealer stole maps worth hundreds of thousands
of dollars from Yale University.

The Philadelphia-based FBI art crime team issued an alert
this month to institutions that hold rare maps in their collections,
advising them to determine whether they were missing any,
and soon libraries from Chicago to London were reporting
that they were. No rare maps in local collections are missing,
but those in charge of reading rooms say that such major
thefts always prompt reviews of inventory and security
measures.

E. Forbes Smiley III, a Massachusetts-based dealer in antique
maps, has been charged with stealing rare maps by cutting them
from books in Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book and
Manuscript Library."

"Maps tucked into books are especially vulnerable, said Tony
Campbell, former map librarian at the British Library who also
worked as an antiquarian map dealer.

"If you take a page out of a rare book, you've got a worthless
piece of paper. But if you take a map, you haven't destroyed
its worth. It's likely to have fair amount of value, and it's virtually
untraceable. That's the joy of it for the thief."

The theft can be hard to detect. "That book is handed to
someone, then handed back with one folded map removed,"
Campbell said.

Unless the librarian is aware that there are maps inside the
book, and knows how many, a theft can easily go undetected."

Full Story

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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