- The Times (UK, subscription required) reported this week that newly-released phone taps "have exposed how Marcello Dell'Utri, a senator and old friend of Berlusconi, received books from Marino Massimo De Caro. ... In one phone conversation with De Caro in 2012, Dell'Utri says one book he wants is so valuable, it will come with 'truffles on it'." Dell'Utri was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2014 for ties to the Sicilian mafia; he has maintained that he did not know the books he was receiving from De Caro were stolen. The texts of the phone taps were originally reported in La repubblica.
- The British Library has turned down an archive of material related to the Taliban, with librarians saying that housing the collection could violate anti-terrorism statutes, which prohibit the collection "of material which could be used by a person committing or preparing for an act of terrorism" as well as the "circulation of terrorist publications."
- This year's National Book Festival commemorates the 200th anniversary of the sale of Jefferson's books to the nation to rebuild the destroyed Library of Congress. In the Washington Post, Mark Dimunation presents a few of Jefferson's favorite titles.
- As part of the processing of Toni Morrison's literary archive, staff at Princeton have been working to recover files from 5.25" floppy disks. Elena Colon-Marrero outlines the process used.
- From Damian Fleming, a list of free digitized manuscripts containing Old English.
- Kazuo Ishiguro's literary archive has been acquired by the Harry Ransom Center for just over $1 million.
- At The Collation, Erin Blake shows how Hamnet is one big data set, and offers some advice on parsing exported MARC data.
- Rare Book School is now accepting applications for scholarships and the IMLS-RBS Fellowships.
- Michael Beckerman reports for the NYTimes about the discovery of missing parts of Adam Michna's 1653 musical work "The Czech Lute," found in a Franciscan library in Slany, near Prague.
- Alison Flood reports for the Guardian on the sale of two James Joyce letters, which fetched more than $24,000 at RR Auction in Boston.
- At Early Modern Online Bibliography, Eleanor Shevlin discusses and reviews ArchBook, an open-access collection of essays "about specific design features in the history of the book."
- Jessamyn West has posted about her discussions with the White House personnel office about what the next Librarian of Congress should be able to bring to the table.
- Tim Cassedy writes in the LA Review of Books about the new app OMBY, "a game that you win by unscrambling Moby Dick, a few words at a time."
- The Library of Congress and Levenger Press are publishing Mapping the West with Lewis and Clark, examining "the critical role that maps played in Jefferson's vision of a formidable republic that would no longer be eclipsed by European empires."
- Items from the Kerry Stokes Collection, including the Rothschild Prayerbook, will be on display at the University of Melbourne's Ian Potter Museum until 15 November. A lecture series accompanies the exhibition.
- In Humanities, Steve Moyer reports on the use of spectral imaging and reflectance transformation imaging on the Jubliees palimpsest.
- Ancestry.com and Gannett Newspapers are collaborating to digitize the full archives of some 80 daily newspapers.
- Elizabeth Ott highlights an utterly fantastic new acquisition at UNC Chapel Hill: an 18th-century perspective "peep show" of a printer's shop at work.
- The British Library will loan the Codex Sinaiticus to the British Museum for an exhibition exploring religion in Egypt after the pharaohs.
- In the Deccan Herald, Pradeep Sebastian explores the fascination with biblio-theft, highlighting a few recent cases.
- Michelle Tay writes for Blouin Artinfo about Sotheby's auction of selections from Pierre Bergé's collection of rare books, which will begin with a sale in December.
- A long-sought Nazi "gold train" may have been located in southwestern Poland after a death-bed confession. The armored train is believed to have been carrying weapons, gold, art, and possibly Nazi archives. Authorities are urging treasure-hunters to stay away, as they fear that the hidden train may be booby-trapped.
- Satellite images reveal the extent of the destruction being wrought on the ancient city of Palmyra by ISIS.
Reviews
- The Butterflies of North America: Titian Peale's Lost Manuscript; review by Dana Jennings in the NYTimes. The manuscript, left unfinished when Peale died in 1885, is being published by the American Museum of Natural History.
- Rosemarie Ostler's Founding Grammars; review by Barbara Spindel in the CSM.
- Paul Kingsnorth's The Wake; review by Jennifer Maloney in the WSJ. This one sounds fascinating ...
Showing posts with label Hakimzadeh. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hakimzadeh. Show all posts
Sunday, August 30, 2015
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Hakimzadeh Sentence Slashed
BAH! These are the stories that really irk me. The BBC is reporting that a British appeals court has halved the jail sentence of Farhad Hakimzadeh, the Iranian-British millionaire who mutilated and stole books from the British Library. Hakimzadeh pleaded guilty to the crimes and received a two-year prison term in January. Today's ruling "means that Hakimzadeh, having served 104 days, will be released in 78 days time."
A British Library spokesman said the institution is disappointed in the ruling, and that they continue to pursue legal options (a civil suit is still in process).
Look, there's no reason this sentence should have been reduced. This guy admitted what he did. He accepted a plea deal. He should do the time. Utterly ridiculous.
A British Library spokesman said the institution is disappointed in the ruling, and that they continue to pursue legal options (a civil suit is still in process).
Look, there's no reason this sentence should have been reduced. This guy admitted what he did. He accepted a plea deal. He should do the time. Utterly ridiculous.
Monday, February 02, 2009
Guardian Comments on Book Thefts
The Guardian's crime correspondent, Sandra Laville, has a column today on library thefts, including updates on William Simon Jacques (aka still on the run) and Farhad Hakimzadeh, plus some new news about a case which had slipped under my radar, that of David Slade.
Slade, 59, is the former head of the ABA and a longtime antiquarian book dealer in England. He stole 68 books from the collections of financier Sir Evelyn de Rothschild (he'd been hired to catalogue the collection and swiped the items on the sly), and sold them at auction. He pled guilty after Rothschild discovered the books were missing during an inventory. Laville points out that this case - and it's a doozy - has received "no publicity" to date, which is true, and regrettable.
Laville: "Alan Shelley, current president [of the ABA], said the only way to eradicate the trafficking of rare books was to work closely with libraries, auctioneers and dealers.
The British Library has led the way by admitting when it is the victim of theft. But while major international libraries alert each other to details of stolen books or descriptions of thieves, these do not always reach the antiquarian book trade and not all libraries are honest about falling victim to theft.
'We all need to be a bit more grown up,' said Jolyon Hudson, from Pickering and Chatto antiquarian bookseller. '[Libraries] are the curators of the nation's knowledge, and when they lose it they are somewhat embarrassed to admit that.'"
All fair points, and all reasons that those of us who work hard to make these cases public do what we do. Auction houses and book dealers must do a more thorough job of checking provenance, and must report suspicious items when they are offered for sale. Libraries and all other institutions must speak out when they've been robbed, and must follow through on the cases and carry them to completion. Collectors must also be watchful of what they're purchasing - even when it's from reputable dealers - and follow up on any suspicious items offered or purchased. Most importantly, all three groups must talk to each other.
But the media also plays a role here: The Guardian reaches a whole lot more people than my posts do, so it cannot just be dealers, auctioneers, librarians and collectors who talk about these matters amongst themselves (although that is a terribly important component). Laville and her counterparts at other news organizations should take these thefts as seriously as we do, and write about them more often. If the international media publicized cultural crimes more often and in more depth, not only would more thieves be captured, but judges and legislatures would take notice and enact the penalties these criminals deserve.
There is no quick fix to the problem. As long as there are books and libraries, there will always be book thieves. Those of us charged with the protection of our cultural heritage must, indeed, raise our voices still louder to demand strong punishments for who seek to steal and damage. But we cannot do it alone.
Slade, 59, is the former head of the ABA and a longtime antiquarian book dealer in England. He stole 68 books from the collections of financier Sir Evelyn de Rothschild (he'd been hired to catalogue the collection and swiped the items on the sly), and sold them at auction. He pled guilty after Rothschild discovered the books were missing during an inventory. Laville points out that this case - and it's a doozy - has received "no publicity" to date, which is true, and regrettable.
Laville: "Alan Shelley, current president [of the ABA], said the only way to eradicate the trafficking of rare books was to work closely with libraries, auctioneers and dealers.
The British Library has led the way by admitting when it is the victim of theft. But while major international libraries alert each other to details of stolen books or descriptions of thieves, these do not always reach the antiquarian book trade and not all libraries are honest about falling victim to theft.
'We all need to be a bit more grown up,' said Jolyon Hudson, from Pickering and Chatto antiquarian bookseller. '[Libraries] are the curators of the nation's knowledge, and when they lose it they are somewhat embarrassed to admit that.'"
All fair points, and all reasons that those of us who work hard to make these cases public do what we do. Auction houses and book dealers must do a more thorough job of checking provenance, and must report suspicious items when they are offered for sale. Libraries and all other institutions must speak out when they've been robbed, and must follow through on the cases and carry them to completion. Collectors must also be watchful of what they're purchasing - even when it's from reputable dealers - and follow up on any suspicious items offered or purchased. Most importantly, all three groups must talk to each other.
But the media also plays a role here: The Guardian reaches a whole lot more people than my posts do, so it cannot just be dealers, auctioneers, librarians and collectors who talk about these matters amongst themselves (although that is a terribly important component). Laville and her counterparts at other news organizations should take these thefts as seriously as we do, and write about them more often. If the international media publicized cultural crimes more often and in more depth, not only would more thieves be captured, but judges and legislatures would take notice and enact the penalties these criminals deserve.
There is no quick fix to the problem. As long as there are books and libraries, there will always be book thieves. Those of us charged with the protection of our cultural heritage must, indeed, raise our voices still louder to demand strong punishments for who seek to steal and damage. But we cannot do it alone.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Hakimzadeh Gets Two Years
Farhad Hakimzadeh, millionaire businessman entered a guilty plea in May to 14 counts of theft over a massive series of book-mutilations at the British Library and the Bodleian, was sentenced today to two years in prison, the BBC reports.
Passing sentence, Judge Peter Ader said: "As an author, you cannot have been unaware of the damage you were causing. You have a deep love of books, perhaps so deep that it goes to excess. I have no doubt that you were stealing in order to enhance your library and your collection. Whether it was for money or for a rather vain wish to improve your collection is perhaps no consolation to the losers."
Civil proceedings continue. More on all this soon.
Passing sentence, Judge Peter Ader said: "As an author, you cannot have been unaware of the damage you were causing. You have a deep love of books, perhaps so deep that it goes to excess. I have no doubt that you were stealing in order to enhance your library and your collection. Whether it was for money or for a rather vain wish to improve your collection is perhaps no consolation to the losers."
Civil proceedings continue. More on all this soon.
Thursday, January 01, 2009
Looking Back
As 2009 makes its arrival (in a bone-chilling way here in Boston: it's currently 6 degrees, with a wind chill making it feel like -13), The Guardian looks back at 2008 in books, an interesting compilation of last year's biblio-news.
Concerning other matters of interest (presumably) to you all, dear readers, here are some of the highlights and lowlights (mostly the latter, unfortunately) from 2008 in book crime. The hyperlinks on each person's name will take you to previous posts related to their crimes. Following the chronology is a list of thefts from this year which remain unsolved.
- The Transy Four failed in their bid to obtain reduced prison sentences when a three-judge panel on the Court of Appeals ruled that they should have received more prison time rather than less. (February) Unfortunately their trial judge ignored the appeals court and let her original sentences stand. (October)
- Eight books stolen from a Slovakian library in December 2007 were recovered in a Bupadest bookshop. (February)
- Jay Miller was sentenced to an eighteen-month prison term for the theft of rare books and antiques from the estate of retired Harvard professor William Ernest Hocking. (March) He was released from prison after only seven months. (November)
- Oliver Fallon, who stole materials from the Scottish Catholic Archive in Edinburgh, was sentenced to 300 hours of community service and ordered to pay a fine of £16,000. (May)
- Peter Joseph Bellwood was sentenced to one year in prison, to be followed by five years' expulsion from Denmark, and ordered to pay a 324,000 kroner ($67,000) fine for the theft of maps from the collections of the Danish Royal Library. (May) Bellwood is currently serving a 4.5-year prison term in Britain for thefts from the National Library of Wales.
- William Simon Jacques, suspected of stealing books from the Royal Horticultural Society in London, skipped bail and is believed to remain at large. (May)
- Raymond Scott, an eccentric British book dealer, was arrested after the recovery of Durham University's First Folio, which Scott took to the Folger Library for authentication. (July) Scott filed suit against the university claiming it's not their Folio (October), but was was later re-arrested in the First Folio case, and then again for stealing books from a Waterstone's shop (November)
- In the case of César Gómez Rivero, Spanish paper El Pais reported that two South American associates of Rivero had been identified, and that investigations continue. (August)
- Richard Delaney, who stole £89,000 worth of rare books and maps from Birmingham University, was sentenced to a one-year prison term (which the judge ordered suspended for eighteen months). (August)
- Eugene Zollman was indicted on charges that he stole Jefferson Davis materials from Transylvania University in 1994. The case was assigned to judge Jennifer Coffman, the same judge who ruled in the Transy Four case. Zollman's case is pending. (August)
- James Brubaker was sentenced to 30 months and prison and ordered to pay $200,000 in restitution to more than 100 libraries from which he stole more than 1000 items. (September)
- Edward Renehan, former head of the Theodore Roosevelt Association, was sentenced to an eighteen-month prison term, plus two years of supervised release and the forfeiture of $86,700 (which he'd received for the sale of letters he stole from the TRA's collections). (September)
- Several books stolen from a Vienna bookshop in October 2007 were recovered in Toronto, but the suspects in the case were not expected to face charges. Other books from the heist had been recovered earlier in Europe. (October)
- Joshua McCarty and two associates (Zachary Scranton and Angela Bays) were arrested in relation to the theft of two rare Ohio law books from the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center (September). McCarty and Scranton were later indicted (October). The case is still pending, so far as I can tell.
- Daniel Lorello, a former employee at the New York State Archives who stole items from the State Library, was sentenced to 2-6 years in prison (which I still think is an awfully wide range), ordered to pay $129,500 in restitution, to be divided among people who unknowingly bought stolen property, and agreed to forfeit his personal collection of historic artifacts and documents, valued at approximately $80,000, to the New York State Library and Archives. (October)
- Denning McTague, who stole Civil War documents from the National Archives in Philadelphia while working there as an intern, was released from prison after serving twelve months of a fifteen-month term. (October)
- Book collector Farhad Hakimzadeh was arrested on charges that he defaced more than 150 books at several British libraries in order to "improve his personal collection" with the illustrations and maps. (November) He'll be sentenced this month.
- Laessio Rodrigues de Oliveira was sentenced to five years in prison for the theft of several rare books from the Institute for Research Botanical Garden in Rio de Janeiro. (December)
- Lester Weber, former curator of the Mariners' Museum, was sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty to theft, mail fraud and filing false tax returns. Weber stole more than 3,500 documents from the museum and sold them on eBay (most have not been recovered). Weber's wife, Lori Childs, was sentenced to a fifteen-month prison term for filing a false tax return. (December)
The following thefts from 2008 remain unsolved (as far as I know):
- A large collection of maps and atlases, stolen from a London collector's office in December.
- A number of rare books stolen from a display case at Boston's Old South Church in September.
- A Mark Twain letter, reported missing after the Denver Book Fair in August.
- Four manuscript diaries from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, stolen at Boston's South Station in March.
Updates or additions always appreciated.
Concerning other matters of interest (presumably) to you all, dear readers, here are some of the highlights and lowlights (mostly the latter, unfortunately) from 2008 in book crime. The hyperlinks on each person's name will take you to previous posts related to their crimes. Following the chronology is a list of thefts from this year which remain unsolved.
- The Transy Four failed in their bid to obtain reduced prison sentences when a three-judge panel on the Court of Appeals ruled that they should have received more prison time rather than less. (February) Unfortunately their trial judge ignored the appeals court and let her original sentences stand. (October)
- Eight books stolen from a Slovakian library in December 2007 were recovered in a Bupadest bookshop. (February)
- Jay Miller was sentenced to an eighteen-month prison term for the theft of rare books and antiques from the estate of retired Harvard professor William Ernest Hocking. (March) He was released from prison after only seven months. (November)
- Oliver Fallon, who stole materials from the Scottish Catholic Archive in Edinburgh, was sentenced to 300 hours of community service and ordered to pay a fine of £16,000. (May)
- Peter Joseph Bellwood was sentenced to one year in prison, to be followed by five years' expulsion from Denmark, and ordered to pay a 324,000 kroner ($67,000) fine for the theft of maps from the collections of the Danish Royal Library. (May) Bellwood is currently serving a 4.5-year prison term in Britain for thefts from the National Library of Wales.
- William Simon Jacques, suspected of stealing books from the Royal Horticultural Society in London, skipped bail and is believed to remain at large. (May)
- Raymond Scott, an eccentric British book dealer, was arrested after the recovery of Durham University's First Folio, which Scott took to the Folger Library for authentication. (July) Scott filed suit against the university claiming it's not their Folio (October), but was was later re-arrested in the First Folio case, and then again for stealing books from a Waterstone's shop (November)
- In the case of César Gómez Rivero, Spanish paper El Pais reported that two South American associates of Rivero had been identified, and that investigations continue. (August)
- Richard Delaney, who stole £89,000 worth of rare books and maps from Birmingham University, was sentenced to a one-year prison term (which the judge ordered suspended for eighteen months). (August)
- Eugene Zollman was indicted on charges that he stole Jefferson Davis materials from Transylvania University in 1994. The case was assigned to judge Jennifer Coffman, the same judge who ruled in the Transy Four case. Zollman's case is pending. (August)
- James Brubaker was sentenced to 30 months and prison and ordered to pay $200,000 in restitution to more than 100 libraries from which he stole more than 1000 items. (September)
- Edward Renehan, former head of the Theodore Roosevelt Association, was sentenced to an eighteen-month prison term, plus two years of supervised release and the forfeiture of $86,700 (which he'd received for the sale of letters he stole from the TRA's collections). (September)
- Several books stolen from a Vienna bookshop in October 2007 were recovered in Toronto, but the suspects in the case were not expected to face charges. Other books from the heist had been recovered earlier in Europe. (October)
- Joshua McCarty and two associates (Zachary Scranton and Angela Bays) were arrested in relation to the theft of two rare Ohio law books from the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center (September). McCarty and Scranton were later indicted (October). The case is still pending, so far as I can tell.
- Daniel Lorello, a former employee at the New York State Archives who stole items from the State Library, was sentenced to 2-6 years in prison (which I still think is an awfully wide range), ordered to pay $129,500 in restitution, to be divided among people who unknowingly bought stolen property, and agreed to forfeit his personal collection of historic artifacts and documents, valued at approximately $80,000, to the New York State Library and Archives. (October)
- Denning McTague, who stole Civil War documents from the National Archives in Philadelphia while working there as an intern, was released from prison after serving twelve months of a fifteen-month term. (October)
- Book collector Farhad Hakimzadeh was arrested on charges that he defaced more than 150 books at several British libraries in order to "improve his personal collection" with the illustrations and maps. (November) He'll be sentenced this month.
- Laessio Rodrigues de Oliveira was sentenced to five years in prison for the theft of several rare books from the Institute for Research Botanical Garden in Rio de Janeiro. (December)
- Lester Weber, former curator of the Mariners' Museum, was sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty to theft, mail fraud and filing false tax returns. Weber stole more than 3,500 documents from the museum and sold them on eBay (most have not been recovered). Weber's wife, Lori Childs, was sentenced to a fifteen-month prison term for filing a false tax return. (December)
The following thefts from 2008 remain unsolved (as far as I know):
- A large collection of maps and atlases, stolen from a London collector's office in December.
- A number of rare books stolen from a display case at Boston's Old South Church in September.
- A Mark Twain letter, reported missing after the Denver Book Fair in August.
- Four manuscript diaries from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, stolen at Boston's South Station in March.
Updates or additions always appreciated.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Millionaire Accused of Mutilating Books
Lots of coverage about this already but I'll toss in my two cents. Multi-millionaire London book collector Farhad Hakimzadeh has been arrested after it was discovered that he defaced more than 150 books at several British libraries, including the BL and the Bodleian. Hakimzadeh is accused of chopping out plates, maps and illustrations to "improve his personal collection." "He pleaded guilty to ten counts of theft from the British Library and four from the Bodleian relating to books worth £140,000, with 20 offences taken into account," the Daily Mail reports. Hakimzadeh was supposed to be sentenced today, but AFP is reporting that the heading has been postponed until 16 January 2009.
British Library officials discovered the first evidence of defacement in June 2006, and were able to cull patron use records and determine the culprit. Some of the stolen items were discovered in Hakimzadeh's house.
Beyond the guilty plea, the BL is pursuing a civil suit against Hakimzadeh for the vandalism, which occurred mainly in books relating to "Western explorers in Mesopotamia, Persia and the Mogul empire."
Dr. Kristian Jensen, the BL's head of collections, didn't pull any punches, saying of the thefts "These are historic objects which have been damaged forever. You cannot undo what he has done and it has compromised a piece of historical evidence which charts the early engagement of Europeans with what we now know as the Middle East and China. It makes me extremely angry. This is someone who is extremely rich who has damaged and destroyed something that belongs to everybody." [Not that it would have been any more excusable if he'd been poor, but you get the idea]. There's an audio interview with Jensen online here. The Guardian has more coverage, plus a selection of the books damaged.
Ian asks "Is it 'better' that he was doing this for some personal/misplaced intent to 'improve' his personal collection vs. doing it to sell on the secondary market? The psychology is definitely different." I don't think there is a better when it comes to book crime. There's never a good reason.
British Library officials discovered the first evidence of defacement in June 2006, and were able to cull patron use records and determine the culprit. Some of the stolen items were discovered in Hakimzadeh's house.
Beyond the guilty plea, the BL is pursuing a civil suit against Hakimzadeh for the vandalism, which occurred mainly in books relating to "Western explorers in Mesopotamia, Persia and the Mogul empire."
Dr. Kristian Jensen, the BL's head of collections, didn't pull any punches, saying of the thefts "These are historic objects which have been damaged forever. You cannot undo what he has done and it has compromised a piece of historical evidence which charts the early engagement of Europeans with what we now know as the Middle East and China. It makes me extremely angry. This is someone who is extremely rich who has damaged and destroyed something that belongs to everybody." [Not that it would have been any more excusable if he'd been poor, but you get the idea]. There's an audio interview with Jensen online here. The Guardian has more coverage, plus a selection of the books damaged.
Ian asks "Is it 'better' that he was doing this for some personal/misplaced intent to 'improve' his personal collection vs. doing it to sell on the secondary market? The psychology is definitely different." I don't think there is a better when it comes to book crime. There's never a good reason.
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