Posted on January 19, 2020 at 4:00 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek
The two men behind one of the largest library thefts in history pleaded guilty last week to the crimes.
Greg Priore, who managed the rare books room at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, and bookseller John Schulman each pinned the motivation on each other in their guilty pleas, according to Smithsonian Magazine.
From 1992 to 2017, Priore smuggled more than 300 items worth over $8 million out of the library to Schulman, who sold them.
Among those items: a first edition of Isaac Newton’s Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica and a 400-year-old Bible, both of which have been recovered.
Unfortunately, many other items are still missing — including a German version of Maximilian, Prince of Wied’s, Travels in the Interior of North America, which was valued at $1.2 million — or were damaged, reports Smithsonian.
A routine insurance appraisal in April 2017 set off warning signals, and a formal investigation was launched in 2018.
Priore and Schulman will be sentenced April 17.
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Categories: Today in Books