Interpol recently announced the results of its operation against international art theft and trafficking. Code named Pandora VII, this was the seventh of these integrated international arrest and seizure operations. This one was led by Spain but involved several nations part of Europol and Interpol. Those were Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain and Sweden.”

 

Conducted during 2022, they said 8,495 checks were made and an astonishing 4,017 stolen items recovered. They added that 130 investigations are ongoing and more arrests and seizures are expected, as “investigators around the globe go after those spoiling and destroying cultural heritage.” Interpol explained, “This iteration of the annual Pandora operation consisted of an operational phase which ran between 13 to 24 September 2022 and saw thousands of checks carried out at various airports, ports and border crossing points, as well as in auction houses, museums and private houses.”

 

Among the items recovered were a Roman marble bust of a woman, 48 religious sculptures, 13 archaeological artifacts, and 3,073 ancient coins. However, what will be of interest to those involved with books is 77 “ancient books.” According to Interpol, they were recovered “in Italy which the Italian Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage seized from an online marketplace. The books had been stolen from the archives of a monastery.” You can see these books in the photo accompanying this article.

 

Interpol did not identify the monastery from which the books were stolen. Perhaps they are still being cleaned up from the massive theft at the Girolamini Library in Italy ten years ago. We are not aware of any other large thefts from an Italian monastery library, but we have not been able to ascertain which one it was.