Zeng Bing and his wife are on trial for the alleged theft of rare books from libraries in Anhui, Jiangsu and Hubei provinces in China, and mailing the materials to their home in Xining. The couple are alleged to have made a large profit from the sale of the materials online. According to the prosecution, over 400 books…
Vatican receives ransom request for stolen documents
The Vatican has announced that it has received a ransom request for the return of two documents stolen from the Vatican in 1997. Both documents are signed by Renaissance artist Michelangelo, and one is written in Michelangelo’s own hand. An unnamed man contacted Cardinal Angelo Comastri offering the return of the documents for 100,000 Euro. The theft had…
UPDATE: Samuel L. Morison pleads guilty
Samuel Loring Morison has been sentenced to two years of probation after pleading guilty to theft of historical records from the Naval History and Heritage Command in Washington, D.C. The more than 34 boxes of materials were related to Morison’s grandfather, World War II naval operations historian Rear Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison. Samuel Morison attempted…
Stolen rare books returned to Italy
Two rare books were among 19 stolen Italian artifacts recently returned to the Italian government by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Stirpium Historiae and Rariorm Plantarum Historia Anno 1601 had been stolen from the Historical National Library of Agriculture in Rome, and were sold via an Italian middleman to an American buyer. The buyer, a San Francisco collector, turned the books…