Booked and Sentenced: Rare Books, Real Heists, and Really Short Sentences

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August 12, 2025

By Lauren Stein

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Unique World of Rare Book Crimes

“‘If anyone take away this book, let him die the death; let him be fried in a pan; let the falling sickness and fever seize him; let him be broken on the wheel, and hanged. Amen.’”^{This ominous warning inscribed into a twelfth-century Bible was meant to deter would-be thieves.^{Book theft has long plagued libraries, collectors, and institutions. In the Middle Ages, chaining books to shelves became the “most wide-spread and effective security system in libraries across Europe.”^{Although we no longer call for chaining books to shelves or frying book thieves, today our security strips and lenient prison sentences are insufficient to deter theft. Given the cultural and historical damage of book theft, modern penalties feel out of step with the gravity of the crime.}}}

Arabic Translation of the Gospels, 1590-1591, printed at the Typographia Medicea, Yale Beinecke Library Collection

Consider the 2006 case of Edward Forbes Smiley III, a well-known and respected rare maps dealer who used his reputation and connections to systematically plunder maps from libraries worldwide.^{For over seven years, ninety-seven rare maps mysteriously vanished from prestigious institutions including the British Library, New York Public Library, and Newberry Library.^{This mystery might have continued indefinitely if not for the sharp-eyed Yale librarian who spotted an X-Acto knife blade on the floor of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript library.^{This tiny blade unraveled Smiley’s three-million-dollar theft scheme.^{When finally caught, Smiley received just forty-two months in prison, barely three and a half years for significant cultural thievery, plus an order to pay almost $2 million in restitution.^{This sentence seems remarkably light for someone who systematically plundered millions of dollars in cultural artifacts from some of the world’s most prestigious organizations.}}}}}

While librarians and institutions argued Smiley’s violation of public and professional trust warranted a harsher sentence, the court prioritized Smiley’s cooperation after being caught.^{U.S. District Court Judge Janet Bond Arterton recognized the cultural significance of Smiley’s thefts but emphasized that upon Smiley’s release, “‘he will have no assets, [and] no career in the field he loves.’”^{In Judge Arterton’s eyes, this personal devastation, combined with his criminal sentencing, reflected sufficient punishment. Unfortunately, Smiley’s lenient sentence reflects a troubling pattern seen across rare book and art theft cases.}}

Books as Targets

Rare books and manuscripts occupy a unique position in the world of crime. As highly valuable cultural artifacts and remarkably easy targets, they are especially susceptible to theft because libraries and archives often have minimal staff, little to no security, and rare books sit unguarded on open shelves.^{Thieves can discreetly remove entire volumes or even slice out individual pages, returning the book to a shelf undetected. This makes it challenging to detect thefts in real time or trace the thieves afterwards. When thieves are eventually caught, courts struggle to determine the extent of their pillaging, complicating prosecution and appropriate sentencing.}

Famous Book Thefts

The ease with which rare books, or pages thereof, can be stolen has enabled some thieves to operate on a staggering scale, accumulating vast collections over many years. However, such prolific thieves still receive minimal sentences. In January 1991, Stephen Blumberg was sentenced to seventy-one months in a minimum-security federal prison and a $200,000 fine.^{Blumberg systematically stole between 23,000 and 26,000 rare books and papers from at least 300 libraries across the United States and Canada.^{Among Blumberg’s criminal collection included a first-edition copy of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a first edition of Paradise Lost, and a hand-printed Bible from 1480.^{Though estimates of his collection ranged between $20 and $40 million, during trial, Blumberg negotiated the value down to a mere $5.3 million.^{By valuing the collection at an eighth to a quarter of the estimated value, Blumberg served a lighter sentence than he would have otherwise.^{Today, his collection would be worth between $49 million and $100 million.}}}}}

In a testament to how effortless book theft can be, most of Blumberg’s thefts went entirely unnoticed. After Blumberg’s arrest, every institution the FBI called “‘without exception, either had no idea what they lost or didn’t understand the extent of their losses.’”

Shockingly, despite Blumberg’s already-short sentence, he was released after four-and-a-half years. ^{In fact, Blumberg’s short prison sentence failed to deter him from future theft. In 1997, Blumberg was arrested for stealing fixtures and antique furnishings from a home in Iowa, sentenced to another five years in prison, and released on probation within a year.^{In 2003, Blumberg was arrested mid-burglary and sentenced to five years of supervised probation, which he violated, resulting in a return trip to prison.}}

Even when thieves work in groups and commit shameless heists, the consequences remain inadequate. In 2004, a group of “clean-cut suburban college students” crafted a plot to steal several volumes of rare books from Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky.^{Unlike Blumberg’s operation, this heist involved four co-conspirators who approached their crime with theatrical flair, wearing “gray wigs and fake beards.”^{When caught, each student was sentenced to eighty-seven months in prison. However, their sentences came with an unexpected bonus.^{Fourteen years later, the crime became the subject of the 2018 film “American Animals,” which romanticized four ordinary, young men deciding to undertake “one of the most audacious art heists in U.S. history . . . .”^{The thieves further capitalized on their crime, with one writing multiple autobiographical books about the heist and his time in prison.^{These cases raise fundamental questions about whether current sentencing practices effectively serve their intended purpose and how society views art theft.}}}}}

The Evolution of Punishment for Theft

Prison sentences are typically intended to deter future reoffending, a principle rooted in deterrence theory.^{Deterrence theory posits that the certainty and severity of punishment can discourage crime and has shaped the United States’ criminal theory for decades.^{Yet, jurisdictions vary widely in their approach to sentencing, as courts must balance factors such as restitution, potential deterrence, and the need to avoid sentence disparities among similarly situated defendants.^{The Supreme Court recognizes federal prosecutors have considerable discretion: “‘the decision whether or not to prosecute, and what charge to bring . . . generally rests entirely in his discretion.’”^{This flexibility enables prosecutors to negotiate plea deals, enforce diversion agreements, and tailor sentencing recommendations rather than pursue maximum penalties in every case.^{Such sentencing decisions prove difficult for courts to review, since prosecutors can base their decisions on “enforcement priorities of a particular Administration” and other “practical considerations rather than legal analysis.”}}}}}

Over the years, sentences have become more lenient. Throughout the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Britain imposed a system called the Bloody Code, which imposed the death penalty for over 200 offenses, many of them property-related, including theft.^{It was this retributive system that influenced the American colonies. By 1776, most American colonies had “roughly comparable” death statutes which covered burglary and robbery.^{Until the latter part of the eighteenth century, only sentencing for petty larceny fell outside the scope of the death penalty.^{During the nineteenth century, the anti-capital punishment movement led many states to abolish capital punishment for crimes like robbery and burglary.}}}

As capital punishment fell out of favor for theft-related crimes, the legal system replaced capital punishment with prison sentences, fines, and restitution.^{In 1994, the United States legislature codified 18 U.S.C § 668 to specifically address the theft of major artwork and cultural heritage items. Under this law, individuals convicted of stealing an object of cultural heritage from a museum shall be fined, imprisoned for not more than 10 years, or both. Complementary to this statute, 18 USCS Appx § 2B1.5 outlines base offense levels and offense characteristics that determine sentencing involving cultural heritage or paleontological resources.}

However, books still occupy a unique space, even for laws meant to protect cultural heritage. In United States v. McCarty, plaintiff-McCarty was sentenced to forty-six months imprisonment for knowingly stealing two books in violation of § 668(b).^{When determining McCarty’s sentence, the court considered McCarty’s prior conviction of theft of lost or mislaid property for selling a stolen nineteenth-century map to a bookstore in Illinois.^{The court also considered ongoing investigations linking McCarty to a burglary of a Chicago bookstore. Under 18 U.S.C. Appx § 2B1.5, sentencing is influenced by the stolen item’s value. A district court “‘need only make a reasonable estimate of the value of the cultural heritage resource based on available information.’”^{A cultural heritage object is defined as an item over 100 years old and worth more than $5,000, or any item worth $100,000 or more.^{However, when multiple antique items are stolen, each piece must independently meet the $5,000 threshold to qualify for sentencing under 18 U.S.C. § 668(a)(2)(A).}}}}

State-specific laws provide additional sentencing guidelines for theft, including rare book theft. For example, under Louisiana law, both theft and illegal possession of stolen items valued at $25,000 or more can result in imprisonment at hard labor for up to twenty years, along with a potential fine of up to $50,000, or both.^{Similarly, in Mississippi, offenses against intellectual property resulting in damage or loss of $25,000 or more can lead to imprisonment for up to twenty years and a fine of up to $10,000, or both.^{These statutes show that when theft involves high-value items, the tools for meaningful punishment do exist, yet are inconsistently applied.}}

International Laws and Art Theft

Other countries are taking decisive steps to protect their cultural heritage. In February 2016, the United Kingdom Sentencing Council announced new theft guidelines requiring courts to account for the “damage to heritage assets” when assessing harm.^{In October 2019, the United Kingdom Sentencing Council expanded its sentencing guidelines for cultural property damage to address a broader range of cultural property offenses, including arson attacks on historic buildings.^{These reforms reflect the United Kingdom’s awareness that theft and damage to cultural property inflict a different societal harm than ordinary property crimes. With heightened sentencing guidelines, the United Kingdom affirms the distinct and irreplaceable value of cultural assets.}}

Italy has taken similar action. On March 23, 2022, Italy enacted Law No. 22, which incorporated crimes against cultural heritage, such as theft, misappropriation, and laundering of cultural assets, into the Italian Criminal Code.^{The new legislation set forth incarceration and pecuniary penalties, along with aggravating circumstances.^{These legal reforms highlight an emerging international consensus: cultural heritage crimes warrant sentencing frameworks that reflect the gravity of the loss, not just the market value of the stolen or damaged object.}}

In the face of international efforts to combat cultural heritage crimes, the United States’ efforts are lackluster. The disparity becomes even more troubling when considering what we lose when rare books disappear from collections. Book theft severs irreplaceable links to our cultural past. Rare editions and manuscripts provide not only textual information, but also a window into what people of the past valued. When a rare map or book vanishes from a library’s collection, it does not just represent a monetary loss, but a permanent removal of human knowledge from public access and scholarly study. While the United Kingdom and Italy acknowledge the harm of cultural theft, the United States falls behind in punishment.

Conclusion: Tracking Book Theft and Next Steps

When legal systems fail to protect cultural heritage, academics and institutions take the lead. The International League of Antiquarian Booksellers has recognized the crisis of stolen manuscripts and books through their Missing Books Register, a free database that tracks stolen books, manuscripts, autographs, maps, and prints worldwide.^{This registry serves as both a practical tool for recovery and a sobering reminder of the cultural loss that inadequate legal protections enable.}

Similarly, the American Library Association (ALA) provides guidelines to help libraries minimize damage from cultural theft. For example, the ALA recommends that libraries work with the appropriate institutional, local, and state groups “to lobby for strengthening of state laws regarding library thefts and for diligent prosecution of such crimes.”^{To facilitate this advocacy, the ALA provides a draft of model legislation for theft and mutilation of library materials.}

The burden of protecting cultural heritage items should not fall upon librarians and booksellers. Until the United States reforms its law to reflect the true cultural cost of these crimes, and courts impose appropriate sentences, the book community’s vigilance provides a necessary but insufficient defense against the systematic plundering of our shared cultural memory.

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Disclaimer: This article is for educational purposes only and is not meant to provide legal advice. Readers should not construe or rely on any comment or statement in this article as legal advice. For legal advice, readers should seek a consultation with an attorney.