Back in September, I blogged about the world’s most expensive books (http://schatjesshelves.blogspot.ca/2016/09/worlds-most-expensive-books.html). I was reminded of this post when I read about the rare book heist that took place near London at the end of January.
Three
thieves apparently climbed onto the roof of a warehouse and bored through
reinforced skylights before rappelling down 40 feet to avoid motion-sensor
alarms. The operation is estimated to
have taken 3 hours! They absconded with more
than 160 antiquarian books valued at over $3 million (CAN).
Among the books
stolen were early works by Galileo, Isaac Newton, Leonardo da Vinci, and Dante Alighieri.
The most valuable item in the stolen haul was a 1566 copy of Nicolaus Copernicus’s De Revolutionibus Orbium
Coelestium, the book that first explained that the sun, not the earth, was
the centre of the universe.
One rare
book dealer, Alessandro Meda Riquier, lost 51 books valued at about $1.5 million (CAN). CBC Radio’s As It Happens had a short interview with Mr. Riquier: http://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-monday-edition-1.3980337/this-was-a-big-job-thieves-nab-3m-worth-of-rare-books-in-mission-impossible-style-heist-1.3980340.
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