Rare Book Monthly

Articles - March - 2017 Issue

Over $2 Million Worth of Rare Books Destined for California Book Fair Stolen from London Warehouse

Title page from a different copy of Copernicus' groundbreaking book.

Title page from a different copy of Copernicus' groundbreaking book.

In what must be the most audacious book theft since the Director of Italy's Girolamini Library stole thousands of antiquarian books under his care, thieves broke into a London warehouse on the night of January 29-30 and made off with 160 books destined for the California International Antiquarian Book Fair. The estimated value of the books is $2-$3 million. The books were in a temporary stop near Heathrow Airport, being transported by three European dealers to the fair in Oakland. They never made it.

 

The method by which the books were stolen was most remarkable. It also raises all sorts of questions. Three thieves climbed onto the warehouse roof and proceeded to cut an opening around a skylight. They then rappelled down ropes 40 feet to the floor below. The advantage of this unusual method of entry was that they were able to evade the security motion sensors by doing so.

 

Next they went to four particular containers which they pried open. From there, they began pulling out books and running them against a list. The ones on the list were set aside, the others discarded. The ones they wanted were then placed in boxes which were hauled back up to the roof by the ropes. Then, the books were lowered from the roof via ropes and placed in a van. Once the job was complete, the van drove away.

 

Police know the sequence of events because it was all captured by security cameras. That video has not yet been released to the public.

 

One dealer lost an estimated $850,000 worth of books. The book with the highest estimate is a second edition of Nicolaus Copernicus' De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium, published in 1566. This book is notable for first espousing the theory that the earth revolves around the sun, not the other way around. It was estimated to be worth around $270,000. That might be a bit generous, but it is a very valuable book. Other valuable books included early editions by Galileo, Newton, and Dante.

 

A complete list of the missing books can be downloaded from the ILAB website by clicking here.

 

Two things immediately struck police and the victims about this theft. One is that the thieves had a list of precisely what they wanted. They took nothing from the warehouse but books, and showed no interest in anything else. And, from the containers of books, they followed a specific list, taking only a pre-selected group of books. Others, many of which were likely to have been of value too, were left behind. They knew what they wanted and took nothing else.

 

Next, the dealers were well aware of the difficulty the thieves would have in reselling these books. Stolen book databases are readily available to dealers and collectors at a high level. No dealer or collector is going to buy a $200,000 book from someone off the street without performing the kind of research that would quickly reveal the book to be stolen. They are too rare to readily be shopped, even to a dealer in another country. Any thief with the knowledge to be so selective would surely be aware of that. Police did not publicize the theft widely at first, evidently hoping the books might show up at a shop, but that has not happened.

 

Speculation is they were stolen on behalf of a particular collector, who obviously plans to keep his collection secret. It seems that would take much of the fun out of collecting, being unable to share the collection with friends, but there have been people who have built collections of stolen books they never shared with anyone, the truth only discovered after they died. One such case was revealed in England only a few months ago where a man who recently died was discovered to have some books in a locked cabinet stolen from the London Library in the 1950's (click here to see the story). However, these books were not nearly as valuable as the ones destined for California.

 

Not yet publicly discussed to our knowledge is that this must in some way be an inside job. Someone associated with either one or more of the dealers, the warehouse, the shipper, perhaps an insurer of the books or someone with knowledge of what was planned to be displayed, must have been involved. The thieves didn't break into a random warehouse and grab some stuff. They knew exactly what would be in there and when. That must have come from someone with knowledge, either accidentally or intentionally revealed. It also would appear that someone must have had knowledge of the inside of the warehouse to know where to find the books and how to evade the motion sensors. Perhaps the fact that there must be some sort of inside connection is what will eventually lead to their downfall. Police have a starting point.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli: Pietro Aquila, Psyche and Proserpina,1690. Starting price 140€
    Gonnelli: Jacques Gamelin, Memento homo quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris, 1779. Starting price 300€
    Gonnelli: Giorgio Ghisi, The final Judgement, 1680. Starting price 480€
    Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli Goya y Lucientes Francisco, Los Proverbios.1877. Starting price 1000 €
    Gonnelli: Domenico Peruzzini, Long bearded old man, 1660. Starting price 2200€
    Gonnelli: Enea Vico, Leda and the Swan,1542. Starting price 140€
    Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli: Andrea Del Sarto [school of], San Giovanni Battista, 1570. Starting price 25000€
    Gonnelli: Carlo Maratta, Virgin Mary and Jesus, 1660. Starting Price 1200€
    Gonnelli: Louis Brion de La Tour, Sphére de Copernic Sphere de Ptolemée / Le Systême de Ptolemée. Le Systême de Ticho-Brahe…, 1766. Starting price 180€
    Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli: Marc’Antonio Dal Re, Ville di Delizia o Siano Palaggi Camparecci nello Stato di Milano Divise in Sei Tomi Con espressevi le Piante…, Tomo Primo, 1726. Starting price 7000€
    Gonnelli: Katsushika Hokusai, Bird on a branch, 1843. Starting price 100€
  • Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer, May 26: Th. McKenney & J. Hall, History of the Indian tribes of North America, 1836-1844. Est: €50,000
    Ketterer, May 26: Biblia latina vulgata, manuscript on thin parchment, around 1250. Est: €70,000
    Ketterer, May 26: M. Beckmann, Fanferlieschen Schönefüßchen, 1924. Est: €10,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer, May 26: A. Ortelius, Theatrum orbis terrarum, 1574. Est: €50,000
    Ketterer, May 26: M. S. Merian, Eurcarum ortus, alimentum et paradoxa metamorphosis, 1717-18. Est: €6,000
    Ketterer, May 26: PAN, 9 volumes, 1895-1900. Est: €12,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer, May 26: Breviarium Romanum, Latin manuscript, 1474. Est: €15,000
    Ketterer, May 26: Quran manuscript from the Saadian period, Maghreb, 16th century. Est: €10,000
    Ketterer, May 26: E. Hemingway, The old man and the sea, 1952. First edition in first issue jacket. Presentation copy. Est: €3,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer, May 26: Flavius Vegetius Renatus, De re militari libri quatuor, 1553. Est: €3,000
    Ketterer, May 26: K. Marx, Das Kapital, 1867. Est: €30,000
    Ketterer, May 26: Brassaï, Transmutations, 1967. Est: €6,000
  • Leland Little, May 21: Signed Artist Proof of the Monumental G.O.A.T.: A Tribute to Muhammad Ali.
    Leland Little, May 21: Assorted Rare Publications Related to H.P. Lovecraft, Including The Recluse Signed by Vincent Starrett.
    Leland Little, May 21: Two Issues of The Vagrant, Including the First Appearance of H.P. Lovecraft's "Dagon" in Number Eleven.
    Leland Little, May 21: Rare First Printing of Anne of Green Gables, With ALS from the Author.
    Leland Little, May 21: First Edition of Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, In First Issue Jacket.
    Leland Little, May 21: The Limited Paumanok Edition of The Complete Writings of Walt Whitman.
    Leland Little, May 21: Beautifully Bound Limited Flaubert Edition of The Works of Guy de Maupassant.
    Leland Little, May 21: First Edition of Bonaparte's Celebrated American Ornithology, With Spectacular Hand-Colored Plates.
    Leland Little, May 21: A Rare Complete Set of Jardine's The Naturalist's Library, With Hand-Colored Plates.
    Leland Little, May 21: Invitation to the Lincoln-Johnson National Inaugural Ball, March 4th, 1865.
    Leland Little, May 21: A Scarce Inscribed First Edition of James Baldwin's Nobody Knows My Name.
    Leland Little, May 21: Picasso's Le Goût du Bonheur, Limited Edition.
  • Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: The Shem Tov Bible, 1312 | A Masterpiece from the Golden Age of Spain. Sold: 6,960,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Ten Commandments Tablet, 300-800 CE | One of humanity's earliest and most enduring moral codes. Sold: 5,040,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: William Blake | Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Sold: 4,320,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: The Declaration of Independence | The Holt printing, the only copy in private hands. Sold: 3,360,000 USD
    Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: Thomas Taylor | The original cover art for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Sold: 1,920,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Machiavelli | Il Principe, a previously unrecorded copy of the book where modern political thought began. Sold: 576,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura, ca. 1639, a very fine pre-publication manuscript. Sold: 381,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Henri Matisse | Jazz, Paris 1947, the complete portfolio. Sold: 312,000 EUR

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