The following appeared on Ex-Libris earlier today, and pertains to the theft of Brazilian books mentioned here last night. The suggestion that the thieves may have acted in advance of planned monitoring enhancements should sound familiar: Daniel Lorello admitted that he began stealing more things when he learned that cameras were to be installed.
"The Goeldi Museum in Brazil discovered the theft of 40 titles (65 volumes)of rare books during a training for handling and exibition of the collections on December 17, 2008, at the end of the day. The next day, three delegates of the Federal Police began investigating the case. They closed the Library to the public and the employees, for an indefinite period, and began an internal inquiry, in addition to the notification to the competent bodies that work in combating the illegal trade of rare books.
Information on the stolen works, which have a watermark of the institution, should be sent to the Federal Police, telephone (5591) 3214-8014 or the Goeldi Museum, (5591) 3274-1811.
Part of the stolen books were described in the two volumes catalog of the Museum, entitled: Catalogus librorum Musaei Goeldiani / organizado por Marisa Rotenberg ; sob orientação técnica de Rosemarie Erika Horch. - Belém : Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi, 1987-1988. 2 v. : il.Contents: v.1. Cimelia : catalogo descritivo das obras raras, seculos XVI,XVII e XVIII - v.2. Botanica : catalogo descritivo das obras raras sobre botanica, seculos XIX e XX.
The sheriff Rúbia Gama Pinheiro began to hear servers and security of the museum to seek information on possible perpetrators of the theft. She said she not known yet when the books were stolen, since the museum do not controlled the room where they were stored. Many illustrations and pictureswere ripped, probably with stylus, of other works from the library, because of the fragility of control. "The security is precarious," said the delegate.
Interpol (international police) has been activated and should cooperate with the investigations. A list of people registered to view the works of the library is already held by the Federal Police and all will be called to testify. The director of the museum, Ima Vieira, has announced that the monitoring system will be strengthened. The project was ready and, according to her office, people who knew the new system may have been anticipated to remove previously the works of the site. The museum will update the inventory of the library to see if other books were taken by the thieves.
Besides the immediate expansion of the surveillance system and custody of institutional holdings, and update the inventory of the collection, theGoeldi Museum asks help in the rescue of the national patrimony. The damage may reach U.S. $ 1 million. Only ten of these books, worth today in the antique market about US $ 100 thousand, by an estimate of the Federal Police.
There's a photo of one of the stolen books at a virtual exhibition:
http://www.museu-goeldi.br/informacaocientifica/expo-livro.htm
Rizio Bruno Sant'Ana
Curador de Obras Raras
Biblioteca Mario de Andrade
São Paulo - SP"
