Stolen Shakespeare Recovered In DC

[Olney Blue]

Source: Channel 9 News, D.C.

Stolen Shakespeare Recovered In DC
Posted By: Jay Mishkin 1 hr ago
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LONDON (AP) -- Police have recovered a stolen 400-year-old volume of Shakespeare after a man walked into a Washington library and asked to have it authenticated.

The First Folio edition of 1623 was stolen nearly a decade ago from a display case at the Durham University library in England. The book is considered one of the most important in the English language.

The mystery began to unravel two weeks ago when a man brought the First Folio to Washington's Folger Shakespeare Library and asked to have it verified as genuine.

Police say the man claimed to be an international businessman who had bought the book in Cuba.

Library staffers asked to keep the book while they did research, and discovered it was stolen. They told the FBI, which launched an international appeal to find the man.

The man was arrested yesterday in England, and is being questioned today.

Read more: http://www.wusa9.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=73848&catid=158

[geomon666]

1. If he's the guy that stole it...

wouldn't he already know it's authentic?

[Indenturedebtor]

2. No kidding! Glad to hear they got it back. n/t

[northzax]

3. he's not the guy, I am certain

he probably bought it from a black market dealer and was looking to have a provenance attached for resale purposes. the Folger is the best place in the US to get that done.

[marshall]

4. He could be the thief but can't sell it without creating a provenance for it

What other way does he have to prove it's real? He can't tell potential buyers he knows it's real because he stole it.

It's possible he inherited it or got it some other way (though I really wonder at the Cuba connection), but I doubt if he didn't know it was stolen.

[northzax]

6. well of course he knew it was stolen

that's why it was authenticated in the US, not the UK.

[Lorien]

5. He needed the authentication for resale purposes

no use in trying to sell it without one. Not all criminals are of the mastermind variety-some just don't think these things through.

[Robeson]

7. Indeed. Nixon comes to mind.

[marshall]

9. It reminds me of the Quedlinburg art scandal

Joe Meador stole millions in artwork that he was supposed to be guarding as a US soldier in the waning days of WWII. He never sold it, just used it to entice sexual partners. He died and his brother and sister, knowing it was stolen, attempted for years to sell it using go betweens. Thank goodness the jig finally came to an end and the relics were returned to Germany.

[Tuttle]

15. or the stolen Stradivarius

Now belongs to Joshua Bell, I believe:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE1D7163EF937A25756C0A961948260

Tut-tut

[EFerrari]

8. It's surprising that the university would have a 1st Folio sitting around

in a display case.

[Posteritatis]

10. You'd be surprised what can turn up in university archives (nt)

[EFerrari]

11. True. The more common problem is what doesn't turn up.

lol

:)

[Posteritatis]

12. God, tell me about it. I need to research less obscure things :P (nt)

[enlightenment]

13. The British Library used to keep an early copy of the

Magna Carta in a display case in a hallway . . .

[Matilda]

14. There's something rather endearing about that.

So trusting.

[enlightenment]

16. I always thought so, too.

It has been moved since they opened the new library, though. It's more "open plan" than the old building.