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V18 2015 INDEX       E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 18, Number 23, June 7, 2015, Article 11

MISSING PRINTS FOUND AT BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY

Remember the story last week about missing coins and artwork at the Boston Public Library. Well, the coins are still missing, but the artwork has turned up. -Editor

Boston Public Library prints found Not lost, just misplaced. That's the word from the Boston Library after it found two missing prints — a Dürer and Rembrandt worth a combined $630,000.

But their presumed loss had already set in motion a chain of events, including an FBI criminal probe and the resignation of the library's president.

On Wednesday, a day before they were found, Boston Library President Amy Ryan announced her resignation in the face of mounting criticism over the "missing" prints — one by German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer titled "Adam and Eve" valued at about $600,000 and the other, a Rembrandt self-portrait worth an estimated $20,000 to $30,000. Ryan said she would step down effective July 3.

The fact that the prints surfaced just 80 feet from where they were supposed to have been filed, is "a cloud lifted, a burden off our shoulders," Ryan told The Boston Globe. "Everyone is happy."

The prints were found by library conservation officer Lauren Schott in the Copley Square branch during an exhaustive eight-week search of the stacks. Fourteen employees pored through more than half of the 320,000 items located there.

"I was shocked to find the two prints, but it really was just luck of the draw," Schott said in a statement quoted by the Globe. "Any one of the team that's been looking for the Dürer and Rembrandt could have found them."

Melina Schuler, a library spokeswoman, was quoted by the Globe as brushing dismissing the suggestion that someone might have taken the prints and then returned them. She said they were believed to have been misfiled about a year ago in a simple case of "human error."

Even so, Boston Police Commissioner William Evens says the investigation will continue, insisting that "The investigation is not over."

As for Ryan? "It was my decision to resign ... and it's still in place," she said, according to The Boston Herald. "I'm just so happy that the prints have been located."

It happens to the best, I guess. Who among us hasn't misfiled something in their own library? I've done it on more than one occasion with both coins and books, and I like to think I'm pretty well organized. Any misfiling stories to share, readers? -Editor

To read the complete article, see:
Lost And Found: Missing Rembrandt, Dürer Prints Turn Up At Boston Library (www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/06/05/412236456/lost-and-found-missing-rembrandt-d-rer-prints-turn-up-at-boston-library)

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
CORNERSTONE COINS MISSING FROM BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v18n22a09.html)



Wayne Homren, Editor

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The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org.

To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com

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