Police have arrested 9 Georgians suspected of operating a complicated prison operation stealing precious vintage books – together with an authentic Alexander Pushkin manuscript – from nationwide libraries throughout Europe.
Cabinets of Nineteenth-century Russian-language literature had been ransacked over two years throughout a number of nations and changed with fakes, Europol, the EU police company, revealed on Thursday.
The College of Warsaw, which was among the many targets, final 12 months reported the theft of first editions of works by the influential authors Pushkin and Nikolai Gogol.
Europol mentioned the suspects allegedly generally posed as lecturers to achieve entry to the books as a way to make counterfeits of “excellent high quality”.
Whereas within the studying rooms “they’d meticulously measure the books and take images earlier than handing them again” – solely to return days, weeks or months later to swap them with close to good copies.
In different circumstances they “relied on a extra crude method” and easily staked out the gathering in nationwide libraries, determined what was of curiosity and later broke in and stole the books, police mentioned.
On the Nationwide Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilisations in Paris final October, two gang members broke in and took away a dozen manuscripts, escaping in an confederate’s automobile.
“In whole, the prison group is believed to be answerable for the theft of not less than 170 books, inflicting monetary damages amounting to round €2.5m [£2.1m] and an immeasurable patrimonial loss to society,” mentioned Europol, which coordinated the operation involving greater than 100 officers looking out 27 properties in a number of nations.
A number of the stolen artefacts had been bought through public sale homes in St Petersburg and Moscow, “successfully making them irrecoverable”, Europol added.
4 suspects had been arrested in Georgia on Wednesday, and one other three people had been detained earlier in Estonia, France and Lithuania. One other two Georgian nationals have been underneath judicial supervision in France since being apprehended at Brussels airport in November 2023.
The worldwide operation took place after French authorities notified Europol about losses of their libraries. It then emerged that different nations had additionally recorded losses of uncommon books and an operation was arrange in France, Georgia, Lithuania, Poland and Switzerland to catch the thieves.
Europol mentioned the gang was believed to be answerable for the theft of not less than 170 books. As a part of the operation the police seized greater than 150 books, the provenance of which they’re now assessing.
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The books had been stolen in 2022 and 2023 from nationwide and historic libraries in France, Germany, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Switzerland.
Final Could Vilnius College’s library found that 17 of its uncommon Russian-language books had gone lacking, whereas the College of Warsaw recognized 79 books as lacking, with an investigation exhibiting books carrying their library stamps and catalogue numbers in a Russian public sale home.
On 31 October final 12 months, employees at Geneva Library observed the theft of a number of books, together with a set of 4 works by Pushkin revealed in 1827, 1823, 1874 and 1821, every valued at greater than €175,000 (£150,000). Two people who had requested to seek the advice of works by the Russian playwright and poet within the days main as much as the theft had left a few of their belongings behind within the studying room.
A 1825 version of Pushkin’s play Boris Godunov was found as lacking from the library at Lyon’s École normale supérieure final July.
As a part of the cross-border response, police additionally recognized the theft of 1 uncommon e-book that had not but been detected as misplaced by its library.
Although Georgia will not be within the EU, Europol was capable of work with Georgian authorities to find a number of members of the organised prison gang.
Hieronim Grala, a former diplomat, an professional in Russia coverage and professor on the College of Warsaw, instructed AFP final 12 months that the theft of the Pushkin and Gogol books was “like gouging out the crown jewels”.
