The Christopher Columbus letter addressed to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella describes his discoveries in the Americas. The letter was translated into Latin, printed, and circulated widely. The Vatican acquired their copy of the 1493 letter printed in Rome by Stephan Plannck in 1921 and it was stolen, replaced by a forgery, at an undetermined time. After years of investigation, law enforcement traced the original letter to a private collector in Georgia. The collector’s letter had been sold to a New York book dealer by Marino Massimo De Caro.

This is the third stolen Columbus letter returned to European libraries within the past two years. Investigators are still determining if there are links between the three cases, and who committed the thefts.

Sources: article, Elisabetta Povoledo, “Vatican Gets Back Stolen Columbus Letter, but Case Remains a Whodunit,” accessed June 21, 2018; article, Brigit Katz, “Stolen Christopher Columbus Letter Returned to Vatican, But Mystery Persists,” accessed June 21, 2018; article, Department of Justice, “Third Stolen Christopher Columbus Letter Returned to the Vatican…,” accessed June 21, 2018.