Stolen-Book.org
This database is for books reported stolen after 15th June 2010. Books reported before this date are, for technical reasons, listed with minimal detail. For fuller information about these items please contact your local ILAB dealer or National Association or ILAB direct. ILAB dealers, please login for full database.
Cette base de données concerne les livres signalés volés depuis le 15 juin 2010. Pour les livres signalés avant cette date, veuillez contacter votre libraire LILA ou Association Nationale. Pour les libraires de la LILA, veuillez vous connecter pour accéder à la base complète.
Recent Book Thefts in the Library of the Abbey of Montecassino
The Italian Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association has published a list of books stolen from the Library of the Abbey of Montecassino. The library’s director, Dott. Francesco Rosa, has kindly given permission to inform all ILAB booksellers about this recent theft in detail.
Collection of stolen maps and atlases relating to Greece and ancient history
In November 2008, 24 atlases and 188 maps relating to Greece and Ancient History were stolen from a private collection in London.
>>> Please click here to learn more and to see the full lists
Books stolen from Classic Rare Books (London, UK)
The books listed here have been stolen from the shop of Classic Rare Books in London. The theft has been reported to the police (crime number 6548268/12).
Massive Thefts at the Girolamini Library in Naples
Dear Colleagues,
Please read the following message carefully: it concerns a massive theft from an important library in Italy. As soon as more information becomes available we will inform you. Committee member Norbert Donhofer and Italian President Fabrizio Govi are working very hard to get all the necessary information, but in the meantime we must advise everyone to be careful and cautious.
Shortly after the reopening of the Girolamini Library in Naples in April of 2012 the Director, Marino Massimo de Caro, announced that 1500 books were missing (April 17). On April 20 the Library was closed by the Naples Public Prosecutor. Marino Massimo de Caro has been suspended and was investigated for embezzlement. On May 18, 1000 books, 240 of which have ownership stamps from the Girolamini Library were found in storage in Massimo Marino de Caro’s home city of Verona, and on May 24 Mr. de Caro was arrested on the charge of embezzlement along with four others; a search warrant is out for a fifth. In the meantime Massimo Marino de Caro has confessed to the theft of thousands of books from the library and is cooperating with police in tracing them.
A number of stolen items from the library have been confiscated by the authorities in Munich (16 items), London (28 items), New York and Tokyo (uncertain numbers).
According to what is currently known and what Massimo Marino de Caro has confessed so far, it is very likely that the number of stolen books from the Girolamini Library is higher than 1500 but no definitive list of missing items has been published by Italian authorities so far. It appears also to be clear that the stolen books were spread out via the trade in several countries, in both Europe and elsewhere.
A number of the books can be recognized by a red library stamp (with a Madonna in the center) but not all books bear this stamp.
Italian authorities have requested assistance from the public prosecutor’s offices in several countries so far. They have also asked Interpol headquarters at Lyon, France, for assistance.
We would therefore strongly advise our members to check their purchases of – mostly – Italian books from the 15th to the 17th centuries if these volumes were purchased in the time period between January to May of 2012.
We will provide our members with a list of stolen books from the Girolamini Library as soon as Italian authorities have published such a document. This is the direct contact to the Italian authorities.
Carabinieri Comando Tutela Patrimonio Culturale
Reparto operative
Via Anicia 22
00155 Roma – Italia
phone +39 06 585631 / fax +39 06 58563200 / raffaele.mancino@carabinieri.it
The responsible officer in charge is Colonello Raffaele Mancino. This gentleman knows who we are, what we are doing and he greatly appreciates our efforts.
Please keep also in mind that the stolen books were not only spread out to auction houses and the trade by Marino Massimo de Caro and his helpers, who have been arrested meanwhile, but also by other persons who simply had been used by De Caro and his gang. It is therefore thinkable that trustworthy persons have offered books to you!
Arnoud Gerits (ILAB Immediate Past President)
>>> Press articles
Books stolen from the National Library of Sweden between the years 1995 - 2004
Click below to find the complete list of the books stolen from the National Library of Sweden.
Swedes Find Stolen Atlas in New York
"He was entrusted to guard Sweden’s cultural heritage, but instead this senior librarian spent years surreptitiously stealing and selling scores of its rare and precious books. When the thief, Anders Burius, was finally caught in 2004, the media called him the “Royal Library Man,” and his sensational crime and subsequent suicide became the subjects of a government inquiry, a radio documentary and, last year, a television mini-series. Now, for the first time, one of the missing books — the earliest printed atlas of the Americas — has been recovered by Sweden’s Royal Library after a librarian there noticed that it was being offered for sale …” Read the whole article by Patricia Cohen in The New York Times
>>> Swedes Find Stolen Atlas in New York. By Patricia Cohen
Downloadable files
All stolen booksLatest stolen books
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The Naked Lunch
First edition. First issue with the green border on the title-page and the price ''Francs 1500'' on the rear flap of...
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Il Dante, con argomenti et dechiaratione de molti luoghi, novamente revisto et stampato
Reliure de l'époque maroquin havane, dos orné, plats ornés de filets dorés en...
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Holy Bible (The Judas Bible)
Darlow & Moule, revised by Herbert, and is probably no. 319: the general title dated 1613 (not present...
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EVRIPIDIS tragoediae septendecim
XVIIIth century half calf over coloured paper boards, calf label and gilt-lettered title on spine, raised bands....
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Manuscript, one leaf, written in French.
Manuscript, one leaf, written in French, ca 1839. A peace treaty that should put an end to the first Carlist War in...
