Dealer denies guilt in map thefts
- From: indigoace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Indigo Ace)
- Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2005 14:08:58 GMT
>From the Chicago Tribune--
Dealer denies guilt in map thefts
FBI inquiry turns up more complaints of missing documents
By Tonya Maxwell, Tribune staff reporter. The Associated Press
contributed to this report
Published August 10, 2005
As a well-known map dealer pleaded not guilty Tuesday to stealing
three valuable maps from a Yale University library, the president of
Boston Public Library said 10 similar documents there are missing.
E. Forbes Smiley III, 49, is charged with three counts of stealing
antique maps from the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at
Yale in June. That case has led to an FBI investigation, and agents
have called on top map libraries, including Chicago's Newberry
Library, to ask whether Smiley has visited and if maps he viewed are
missing.
Renowned map depositories have answered yes to both questions.
Boston Public Library President Bernard Margolis told the Tribune in
July that the inventory there was complete and the collection was
unharmed. But on Tuesday he said his librarians have identified 10
maps, valued together at $165,000, that are missing from books Smiley
viewed.
Librarians previously had looked at single maps requested by Smiley
and found none missing, he said. But when they examined books viewed
by the Martha's Vineyard, Mass., map dealer, they found missing pages.
Most appeared to have been severed with a blade, Margolis said.
On June 8 Smiley caught a Yale University librarian's attention when
she noticed an X-Acto knife blade on the floor. Police said they later
stopped him and found him carrying eight rare maps.
Local investigators charged him with stealing three of those maps, and
they sent the remaining documents to the FBI.
One of those renderings, of Lake Superior, probably belongs to the
Boston Public Library, Margolis said. The library's examination of
books continues, but it would be nearly impossible to prove who might
have cut maps away, he said.
Most came from books featuring only one or two drawings, he said, and
many of the renderings were not catalogued.
"It's a real heart tug here," Margolis said. "They're my life. We
serve as guardians so people can use them and enjoy them. We don't
want to lock up and coddle them just because they're pretty."
Boston Public Library has added new security features, he said, but he
declined to elaborate. He added that his staff is talking with other
institutions, including the Newberry, to determine if maps missing
from one library ended up in another collection.
Newberry's president has said two maps viewed by Smiley appear to be
missing.
Smiley entered his plea in a New Haven, Conn., courtroom. Neither he
nor his lawyer would comment.
----------
Copyright © 2005, Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/nearnorthwest/chi-0508100240aug10,1,4662252.story?coll=chi-newslocalnearnorthwest-hed
--
Anne
indigoace at goodsol period com
http://www.goodsol.com/cats/
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