The Times reports that British Library officials are displeased with the 42-month/$1.9 million fine sentenced slapped on E. Forbes Smiley. Scholarship and collections director Clive Field told the paper "In the library’s view, a term of imprisonment of 42 months - equivalent to around 12 days for each of the 98 maps Smiley admitted to stealing - and financial restitution of £1 million, do not adequately reflect the seriousness of the offences. Nor do they represent a commensurate punishment of Smiley for his serial thefts, or a serious deterrent to other would-be thieves of cultural property. It will go down in criminal and library history as one of the largest, most prolonged, premeditated and systematic of all thefts from libraries, and with no mitigating circumstances."
Can't help but agree.
