https://www.ft.com/content/e9deeed2-9e5a-4225-bc8e-ef030e530805
"There is a joke within the world of rare books, manuscripts and maps that
“every rare book has been stolen at least once”. This strange and shadowy
corner of the industry was illuminated lately by the mysterious case of Charles
Darwin’s disappearing notebooks. Taken from Cambridge University Library
somewhere between November 2000 and January 2001, they resurfaced in March this
year, returned to the library in pristine condition, wrapped in clingfilm and
placed in a hot-pink gift bag. The manila envelope was marked in capital
letters with “Librarian. Happy Easter x”.
It’s a news story that recalls the scandal of 2005-06, says Peter Barber,
former head of maps at the British Library. An English dealer had come to see
him with an American who seemed “nervous and off”. He didn’t ask for any of the
usual favours – no special access pass, no out-of-hours tour. A few days later,
when the library received a request for a photograph of a rare map inside a
book, they found the map was missing. “I asked for a list of the people who had
previously seen this book,” says Barber. “One was a Mr E Forbes Smiley.”
Alarmed British Library staff checked the other volumes Smiley had examined.
“Sure enough, maps were missing from those too.” Soon after Barber informed the
police, he discovered that Smiley had been arrested at the Yale Center for
British Art, New Haven, after dropping the X-Acto blade he had used to carve
out the papers at the Yale Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. In total,
Smiley was convicted of stealing some 97 maps valued at $3mn, from six
institutions – though these numbers are suspected to be higher."
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
