RBMS Security Committee: Theft Reports 2006
This is a list of incidents reported in the public media and on open listservs, such as Exlibris. The "Incidents of Theft" list was begun in 1987 and is updated by a member of the RBMS Security Committee. Although known to be incomplete, the list does provide an indication of the extent and variety of reported and alleged thefts. For reports in the Exlibris electronic discussion list since April 1991, consult the list archives.
The following list contains notices of thefts that occurred or were reported from January 2006 to December 2006. For additional coverage or for information on how to report notices for possible inclusion on the list, please consult the cumulative index.
2006
December 2006
Norman Buckley, of Hulme, England, was given 250 hours' community service following his trial for the theft of 455 books, posters and documents from the Central Library in Manchester, England. Buckley was arrested on March 31, 2006, on suspicion of theft. Although most of the material was recovered from Buckley's home, over 40 items were sold on eBay. A 15-month jail sentence was suspended due to Buckley's assitance in recovering much of the material. He was dismissed from the job following his arrest.
Source: American Libraries, Dec. 2006; article, " Library worker stole rare books," posted on BBC News website, Oct. 25, 2006.
November 2006
A Lewis Carroll letter, dating from 1890, belonging to Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book and Special Collections Library, was discovered being offered for sale on eBay. Police tracked the letter to a Utah collector who had bought the letter for several thousand dollars. The collector returned the letter to Yale upon learning it was stolen.
Source: Article, "Yale's Lewis Carroll Letter Ends Up On eBay," by Kim Martineau, from the Hartford Courant, Nov. 26, 2006.
Two manuscript items have gone missing following the Hamburg Antiquarian Book Fair (Quod libet), held in November. The items were last seen during packing of material on November 12, 2006. Description of the missing material follows:
BORGES, Jorge Luis. Working Manuscript of the Story, "La biblioteca de Babel." c. 1940. Eight small quarto (9" x 6 1/2") sheets and one smaller (truncated) sheet, removed from a ledger notebook.
BORGES, Jorge Luis. Manuscript of the Story "Pierre Menard, autor del Quijote." c. 1940. Eleven pages, removed from a ledger, the same notebook, presumably, from which the manuscripts of El jardin and La biblioteca de Babel were removed. A late state of the manuscript, but with a fair number of corrections, and several more significant insertions.
Please contact: John Wronoski, Lame Duck Books, 12 Arrow Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA (Tel: 1-617-868-2022, Fax.1-617-868-2023).
Source: Exlibris electronic discussion list, Dec. 1, 2006.
A night porter at the University of Erlangen in southern Germany will stand trial in December on charges of book theft. Following two years of investigation, it was discovered Reinhold K. (identify withheld, pending trial), in collusion with a bookseller, Ludwig M. (identify withheld, pending trial), had stolen a number of books, mostly standard classical works on botany.
Source: Article, "Thieving library staff take a love of rare books too far," by Roger Boyes, from The Times Online, Nov. 24, 2006.
October 2006
A Canadian couple, Nora Thompson and Peter Mason King, were arrested in Toronto after selling rare books stolen from a Westport, Connecticut art store. The couple had been caught on a surveillance system recently installed in the art store. During the course of the investigation, it was also discovered the couple had been stealing from a Toronto dealer and selling the material in the United States. Although some of the material, valued at $65,000, has been recovered, some is still missing.
Source: Article, Book theft caught on tape," by Kim Martineau, from the Hartford Courant, Dec. 11, 2006.
The following maps were reported missing from the Lionel Pincus & Princess Firyal Map Division and Rare Books Division of The New York Public Library.
http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/map/raremaps.html
http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/map/rarebooks.html
Please notify Matt Knutzen, Assistant Chief of the Map Division at mknutzen@nypl.org or Michael Inman, Librarian in Charge of the Rare Books Division at minman@nypl.org concerning any information about these maps.
Source: Exlibris electronic discussion list, Oct. 2, 2006.
September 2006
The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library reported the following maps were discovered missing in June 2005.
Please contact E.C. Schroeder at the address below concerning information that can assist in their recovery.
[Untitled map of Tenochtitlan, first map of Mexico City], removed from:
Cortes, Hernan. Praeclara Ferdindi. Cortesii de
noua maris Oceani Hyspania narratio ... [Norimberga, 1524].
Beinecke Library call number: Taylor 58
Church 53; Burden 5
Map measures approx. 30 cm. x 46 cm.
An image of the missing map is available on the Beinecke Digital Library at
http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/dl_crosscollex/brbldl/oneITEM.asp?pid=2000026&iid=1003601&srchtype
[Untitled map showing the Northwest Passage *] removed from
Foxe, Luke. North-west Fox or, Fox from the north-west passage*. (London, 1635)
Beinecke Library call number: Taylor 324
Church 429; Burden 243
Map measures approximately: 32 x 44.8 cm
An image of a different copy of the map that the Beinecke owns is available at
http://inky.library.yale.edu/area51/Maps/Maps%20jpegs/6A.jpg
A chart of the sea coast of Newfoundland, New
Scotland, New England*. Removed from:
The English pilot: the fourth book. Describing the sea-coasts*. (London, 1698)
Beinecke Library call number: 1973 Folio 76
[Mr. E. Forbes Smiley acknowledged stealing the
following map but stated that he lost it in New York City.]
Oronce Fine, Nova et Integra Universi Orbis Description removed from:
Huttich, Johann. Novus orbis regionum ac
insularum veteribus incognitarum * (Paris, 1532).
Beinecke Library call number: CE141 +N68
Sabin 34102
Map measures approximately 40 x 33 cm.
Edwin C. Schroeder
Head of Technical Services
Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library
Yale University
P.O. Box 208240
121 Wall St.
New Haven, CT 06520-8240
(203) 432-7485
Fax: (203) 432-4047
edwin.schroeder@yale.edu
Source: Exlibris electronic discussion list, Sep. 29, 2006.
Johnathan Nunley, a student assistant at the Texas Tech University Library, was indicted in August on third-degree felony charges following the discovery of over $75,000 worth of library books sold through an online retailer. Police suspect Nunley took advantage of his position in the circulation department, working unsupervised late at night, to steal material, selling it through an online bookbuyer, McKenzie Books. Police began an investigation following the discovery of library markings in the material, which had been marked over in permanent ink.
Source: Article, "Tech library theft marks new chapter," by Elliott Blackburn, from the Lubbock (Texas) Avalanche-Journal, Sept. 17, 2006.
UPDATE: On June 22, E. Forbes Smiley, a map collector and dealer suspected of multiple thefts of maps from a number of institutions, pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of theft and, later that day in a Connecticut court, to three counts of larceny. All counts relate to thefts from Yale University. Smiley has also admitted to taking 97 maps from the New York and Boston public libraries, the Newberry Library, Harvard University, and the British Library. All but 11 of the maps have been recovered.
Source: American Libraries, Sept. 2006.
Two Civil War documents were taken from a display case at the main branch of the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, the weekend of August 26. The documents, a handwritten furlough for a Confederate soldier and a certificate of medical examination for a slave, are together valued at $400.
Source: American Libraries Direct, Sept. 6, 2006.
A 1532 edition of Astronomicum Caesareum, by Petrus Apianus, has gone missing from a display case at Peuerbach Castle in Upper Austria. The volume, valued at £20,000, was discovered missing by a guide on August 26. The theft, which went unnoticed for days because another book was left in its place, is suspected to have taken place between August 23 and August 26.
Source: Guardian On-line, Sept. 5, 2006.
May 2006
The Virginia Historical Society reported two books had gone missing while part of a traveling exhibit. The exhibit traveled from Richmond, to Tacoma, Washington, Topeka, Kansas, and St. Louis, Missouri between January 2004 and December 2005. It is not known exactly when the books were lost. The missing titles are:
Gass, Patrick: A journal of the voyages and travels of a corps of discovery: under the command of Capt. Lewis and Capt. Clark of the Army of the United States, from the mouth of the river Missouri through the interior parts of North America to the Pacific Ocean, during the years 1804, 1805 & 1806; containing an authentic relation of the most interesting transactions during the expedition, a description of the country, and an account of its inhabitants, soil, climate, curiosities, and vegetable and animal productions / by Patrick Gass, one of the persons employed in the expedition; with geographical and explanatory notes by the publisher. 1st ed. Pittsburgh: Printed by Zadock Cramer for David M'Keehan, 1807. 262 p.; 18 cm. Bears distinctive leather bookplate of Paul Mellon, approximately the size and shape of a silver dollar done in crimson and gold and bearing the image of a sheaf of wheat flanked by oak leaves with "Oak Spring" at the top and "Paul Mellon" at the bottom. Also bears the "Parry" bookplate and ownership inscription: "Daniel Parry, 10 mo. 26th. 1808." Bound in worn marbled boards with some foxing throughout.
United States. War Dept. Inspector General's Office: Regulations for the order and discipline of the troops of the United States. Part 1. Philadelphia, Printed by Charles Cist, No. 104 North Second-Street, 1795. [4], 151, [8] p., 8 folded plates; 17 cm. Bound in worn paper boards with some deterioration to leather spine and some foxing throughout.
Source: Museum Security Network (3 May 2006) discussion list.