The books cost tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars each. In most cases, the originals have been replaced by high-quality copies that even imitate fox.
Pushkin died young, so “lifelong Pushkins” are very rare. This is, for example, “Eugene Onegin”, which was published as a series; the first edition, with individual chapters in original covers, sold for more than 467 thousand British pounds ($581 thousand) at a Christie’s auction in 2019.
Western sanctions imposed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine ban Western retailers from selling books to Russian residents, fueling the underground market for rare books, NYT notes. In this market, sales are often private through intermediaries and it is difficult to monitor cash transactions, sellers say. Libraries are easy targets for thieves because they serve the public; they are often underfunded and do not have the same protections as museums and other institutions with valuable works.
London-based Russian rare book dealer Pierre-Yves Guillemette and other dealers say Russian books stolen from European libraries are unlikely to end up at official auctions in the West. However, the books may be of interest not only to experienced collectors, but also to “wealthy people who want trophy items,” notes Guillemette.
Europol said some of the stolen books had already been sold by auction houses in Moscow and St. Petersburg, “effectively bringing them back.” The agency did not say which books they were, citing an ongoing investigation.
What is known about thieves
According to Europol, authorities arrested nine people in connection with the robberies, all Georgian citizens. The NYT has obtained documents from an investigation by the French police, which is involved in the fight against cultural theft. They say a network of helpers, some of them blood relatives, traveling around Europe on buses with library cards is behind the theft. They find rare Russian books, make high-quality copies, and then exchange them for originals.
The four were held in Georgia at the end of April together with more than 150 books. In November, French police arrested three suspects. Another person was convicted in Estonia. He was extradited from Latvia there, where he was serving time for helping to steal three books from the Latvian National Library in Riga – one by Pushkin and two by the Russian futurist poet Alexei Kruchenykh, who was known to be looking for. new poetic language.
A fifth suspect is in prison in Lithuania – the last one involved in a theft at the Vilnius University library, where 17 books worth €440,000 ($470,000) went missing. He is also suspected of involvement in thefts from libraries in other countries, according to case files reviewed by The Times.
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2024-05-01 19:01:42
