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

To catch a rare-book thief

submited by
Style Pass
2022-07-04 22:30:05

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 Centre for British Art, Boston, after dropping the X-Acto blade he had used to carve out the papers. In total, Smiley was convicted of stealing some 97 maps valued at $3mn, from six institutions – though these numbers are suspected to be higher.

Rare books command huge prices. In the past year, Peter Harrington Rare Books, in London, has sold a Shakespeare Third Folio for £500,000, a first-edition On The Origin Of Species for £300,000, and is currently offering a rare Hakluyt Atlas for £800,000. But paradoxically, it’s not easy to make a profit from “priceless” books on the black market. “Unless you’ve got a James Bond villain stroking a white cat who just wants to hold these items, most rare notebooks are like the Mona Lisa – totally and utterly unsaleable,” says London antiquarian book dealer Bernard Shapero. Nevertheless, argues Barber, “a fair number of thefts are done on commission – for millionaires who are obsessive collectors. They retain them until they die, when they might be returned. That could have been what happened to the Darwin notebooks.” 

Leave a Comment