A major theft from the University of Warsaw Library reveals that large-scale library theft is not limited to America and Western Europe. This one followed an increasingly common method of throwing off librarians from picking up the trail. The thief or thieves replaced the missing books with dummies. In this case, it was not as sophisticated as the almost identical substitutes that have been discovered replacing Columbus letters, copies so good it took years before anyone realized they were fakes. This time, the thief simply placed dummy bindings on the shelves to cover up the fact that volumes were missing.
The theft came to light on October 23. It was determined that an unknown man and woman took out ten books but returned only two. All were Russian books, printed in Cyrillic. They dated from 1827-1842. These eight missing books have been valued at at least $50,000. The theft was immediately reported to the police.
Subsequent searching revealed that many other books were also missing. It is believed about 80 volumes were removed and replaced by fakes. The estimated value has now risen to €500,000 or $535,000. Others were taken earlier, sometime over the past year. Some have already been sold at auction. One was a Pushkin first edition which sold for €30,500 (US $32,000). The director of the library, Anna Wolodka, was dismissed for negligence, despite many years of service at the library.
Ms. Wolodka appealed her dismissal, noting she immediately informed authorities when she learned of the theft. However, the university's rector stated that she had been informed last year that an individual who stole books from a Latvian library had visited the premises. Ms. Wolodka responded that she was not so informed. In as terse statement on their website, the Warsaw University library announced “Please note that due to the need to introduce provisions in the regulations to increase the security of historical collections, access to the resources of the 19th century Collections Cabinet is suspended until further notice.”
