Accused First Folio thief Raymond Scott is giving interviews again, for the first time since late July. He tells the Journal Live that he wants his day in court to clear his name. Scott still hasn't been officially charged with anything related to the theft or possession of Durham University's First Folio, which was recovered this summer after Scott brought it to the Folger Shakespeare Library for authentication.
Scott now says that the Cuban family who supposedly owned the Folio (and gave it to him to take to Washington for study) has had the book in their possession since 1877. For the first time that I've seen in print, First Folio census-taker Dr. Anthony James West weighs in, saying "When the Folger Library got in touch with me the information they sent was highly supportive of the fact that it was the Durham copy, but not proof. I looked at the Durham copy in 1994, four years before it was stolen. When it was stolen, I wrote to Durham University with a description of their copy. When the disputed copy turned up at the Folger library in Washington, they used my consensus [presumably census] to try to identify it. From what the Folger Library have told me, I’m getting more and more close to the conviction that it may be the Durham copy."
Police say the investigation into the theft is still ongoing.
Interestingly, the article continues to misstate the approximate value of the First Folio at £15m (this copy is probably worth less than a tenth of that at this point).
