Document theft

Document theft is the crime of stealing documents of historical, literary, or cultural interest from public or private archives, often for the purpose of sale to private collectors.
In many cases, document thieves occupy positions of trust, or have established records of legitimate accomplishment, prior to their crimes. Examples of notable convicted document thieves include former New York State archivist Daniel D. Lorello, biographer Edward J. Renehan, Jr. , Frede Møller-Kristensen (died February 2003) who between 1968 and 1978 stole some 1,600 historical books worth more than $50 million from the Danish National Library, and antiquities dealer E. Forbes Smiley III, who stole nearly 100 maps from libraries in the United States and Great Britain over the course of eight years. In July 2011 it came to light that presidential historian Barry Landau , along with research assistant and accomplice Jason Savedoff, had stolen over one million dollars' worth of documents from the Maryland Historical Society, including papers signed by Abraham Lincoln and other presidential artifacts. On June 27, 2012, U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake sentenced Barry Landau to seven years in prison for his crimes.
In addition to letters, maps, and other manuscript material, rare books also attract the attention of document thieves. John Charles Gilkey , for instance, stole hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of rare books over the course of many years. These crimes were largely the product of a personal obsession, illustrating the range of motives in document thefts.
Wilfrid Voynich, in good faith, bought an item stolen from Lincoln Cathedral from James Edward Tinkler: he returned the volume. ('High Court Of Justice. King's Bench Division., Cathedral Library Thefts: Old Volume Traced., The Dean And Chapter Of The Cathedral Church Of Lincoln V. Voynich. (Law) The Times Thursday, May 11, 1916; pg. 4'; The National Archives File MEPI 3/201 covers the thefts)
More information on the Wikipedia page : with the category of convicted book thieves being .
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See also Art theft
Category:Reference