But First: The Harry Potter Caper
Earlier this month it was reported that a short handwritten Harry Potter story by J.K. Rowling was stolen. It had been bought at a charity auction for £25,000 back in 2008. The incident reminded me of a much, much larger theft involving books that took place almost four months ago. I thought I would check to see if the culprits have been caught; they have not. Since I did the checking and since you are very likely to have been occupied by things Trumpian, I thought I would bring you up to date.
A BIG Heist at Heathrow
The robbery took place at the end of January, 2017, but was not reported until around Feb.12 which is when the books were due to be on display at the 50th International Antiquarian Book Fair in Los Angeles. The books were being held in a warehouse in Feltham, West London near the Heathrow Airport.
The robbers were quite daring and most accounts contain the words ‘Mission Impossible’ and ‘abseiling’. Athletes, surely, but not necessarily dilettantes. The crooks are clearly cosmopolitan and comfortable with languages other than English. Their reading tastes are also rather refined which means, you would think, that the coppers are looking for just a few David Niven-like characters. Still, no luck in finding them so far. It is doubtful the culprits were simply attempting to supplement their incomes to support opioid habits and it is unlikely they will be showing up at pawn shops in Hackney.
Many other valuable items and books in the facility were ignored. The thieves focussed their efforts on a few crates from which they lifted over 160 rare books. The rarest and most expensive is the 1566 copy of Nicolaus Copernicus’s De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium valued at around £215,000. It belongs to an Italian book dealer from Padua who is reported to have lost over £680,000.
Not a Rare Event
During the course of my investigation I uncovered an interesting database that I will identify in the sources below. It provides a complete list of all the books stolen from Heathrow. As well, it contains 173 pages that provide details of other thefts of rare books, posters, letters and maps over a number of years.
I made a remark in a post a while back about accountants being the only ones these days who are interested in keeping books. It was meant sarcastically, but maybe I was right.
P.S.
Of all the fascinating details provided above I am sure you were surprised by the fact that there is an Antiquarian Book Fair in Los Angeles, but that is true.
You would be even more surprised if I had included this information about the owner of the Potter story that was stolen: at the time of the theft he was away on a business trip to Thailand with Steven Seagal!
Sources:
“Ancient Books Snatched in £2m ‘Mission Impossible’ Raid,” Fiona Hamilton, The Times, Feb. 12, 2017.
“Books Worth $2.5 Million Stolen in a Daring London Heist, Michael Schaub, Los Angeles Times, Feb. 14, 2017.
CBC Radio provided an interesting account on the program As It Happens: “ 'This was a Big job': Thieves Nab $3M Worth of Rare Books in Mission Impossible-style Heist,” Interview, CBC, Carol Off, Feb. 13, 2017. A transcript of the interview is available at this site and you can listen to the interview with the Italian book dealer (about 6 minutes).
“Thieves Steal Over 160 Rare Books in Major Heist,” Nate Pedersen, Fine Books & Collections, Feb. 14, 2017.
The database I referred to is Stolen-Book.org which is found on a site provided by the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers. It includes details about the “Warehouse Theft, London, January 2017” and a complete list of the books.
Also provided is an inventory of books stolen since 2010 which is very interesting. You will learn that no subject is safe. The list includes children’ books, gardening ones (Observations On The Theory And Practice Of Landscape Gardening, by Repton seems to be popular) and religious tomes. Other things are listed as well, including portraits, letters and globes. Among the posters pilfered is one advertising a performance by Buckinger (Buchinger) in London around 1730 (see my post about him back in September).
Apart from providing details about the books burgled, there is generally a description of the places from which they were stolen. They include: private dealers; personal collections, booksellers, libraries and even castles. Here are two descriptions involving the latter two:
From a Library: (the lists of books are not included. For those see the website.
Hebrew Books Stolen from Lincoln College Library, Oxford
Please find below a list of 23 Hebrew books stolen from Lincoln College Library, Oxford (UK). The theft was investigated by the authorities in 1990, the list compiled by Rahel Fronda, Hebrew Antiquarian Cataloguer, in September 2014, has been circulated to Interpol and the Art Loss Register.
From a Castle:
List of Books Stolen from the Castle of Datschitz (Moravia, Czech Republic)
The following books were stolen from the Castle of Datschitz, Moravia (Czech Republic) in the year 2007. It might be possible that the books show up or have already shown up in the trade.
If you interested in book thieves, be sure to read the Wikipedia entry for Stephen Blumberg and then the story about him in A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books, by Nicholas Basbanes. Blumberg stole almost 25,000 of them.
For an interesting Swedish case see: US Returns to Sweden Millions in Antique Books Stolen by Suicidal Librarian, Sarah Cascone, June 17, 2015
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