FBI to Return Stolen Books to Sweden’s National Library

From Radio Sweden:

A couple of the more than 50 rare books that were stolen and sold under an alias by a senior librarian at the National Library over a decade ago will be returned to Sweden at a repatriation ceremony in New York on Wednesday.
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“It feels great”, said head librarian Gunilla Herdenberg, who is in New York to receive the two 15th century books from the American FBI at the offices of the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan.
“We have inspected the books and have confirmed that they are ours. Which books they are, I cannot go into at present, but I can say that they are from the 1600s and are invaluable and of great importance to Sweden’s cultural heritage,” she told SVT News.
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It was in 2004 that, following an inventory of its rare books collection, librarians in Stockholm discovered that at least 56 rare books had been stolen. The head of the National Library’s manuscript department, Anders Burius, admitted that he had been stealing the books and selling them to a German auction house under an alias. He had removed any markings that would identify where they came from.

Read the Complete Article
See Also: Updated List of Stolen Books from the National Library of Sweden (1995-2004)(via National Library of Sweden)

Filed under: Libraries, National Libraries, News