In April 2022, shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, two men arrived at the library of the University of Tartu, Estonia’s second largest city. They told the librarian that they were Ukrainians fleeing the war and requested access to first editions of 19th-century works by Russian national poets Alexander Pushkin and Nikolai Gogol. They said in Russian that they were an uncle and nephew who were studying censorship in czarist Russia so that the nephew could apply for a scholarship to the United States. The librarian was eager to help and agreed. The men spent 10 days studying the books.
Four months later, during a routine annual inventory, the library discovered that eight of the books the men had consulted were missing, replaced by high-quality reproductions that could only be discovered by an expert eye. “It’s terrible,” library director Krista Aru said. “They have a really good story.”
At first, this seemed like a one-off — bad luck for the provincial library. But in fact, it’s not. Police are currently investigating a series of large-scale, coordinated thefts of 19th-century Russian books – mainly first and early editions of Pushkin’s works – from libraries across Europe.
According to Europol, more than 170 books worth more than $2.6 million have disappeared from the National Library of Latvia in Riga since 2022. Vilnius University Librarythis Berlin State Librarythis Bavaria State Library The National Library of Finland in Munich, Helsinki, the National Library of France, the university libraries of Paris, Lyon and Geneva and the libraries of the Czech Republic. The University of Warsaw library was the worst affected, with 78 books lost.
The books are worth tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars each. In most cases, the originals were replaced by high-quality replicas that even imitated their foxes – a sign of sophisticated operations. Experts say it is unprecedented that similar books have disappeared from so many countries in a relatively short period of time. The thefts have led libraries to tighten security measures and dealers to be on high alert about the origins of Russian books.
How a Russian rare book became the center of a possible transnational criminal conspiracy involves as much money and geopolitics as it does a cunning forger and lackluster library security. Authorities, librarians and experts on Russian rare books believe that thieves are small fish serving big fish. But who was behind the theft and what the motive was remains an open question.
In recent years, first editions of Russian Golden Age writers have sold for five- and six-figure prices. western auction. Experts say they now have a booming market in Russia, where they have huge cultural and patriotic value. French authorities have not ruled out the possibility of bringing the Russian treasure back to Russia with state approval.
Authorities have arrested nine people in connection with the thefts, according to Europol. In late April, four people were detained in Georgia along with more than 150 books. In November, French police detained three suspects. Another man was convicted in Estonia and a fifth suspect was jailed in Lithuania.
A special French police force dedicated to combating cultural theft is overseeing the investigation in France and coordinating it across Europe. Authorities painted a picture of a network of colleagues, some of them blood relatives, who traveled across Europe by bus with library cards, sometimes under false names, in search of rare Russian books, made high-quality copies and then sent them to They were replaced with original versions. Case files reviewed by The Theatre. The New York Times revealed.
The investigation, dubbed “Operation Pushkin,” received extensive coverage parisian, a Paris daily. Col. Hubert Percy Doucette, chief of France’s cultural police, declined to comment on the ongoing investigation.
In Russia, Pushkin is a national icon, as stature as Shakespeare but as familiar as a friend. He was a Romantic poet, novelist and playwright, aristocratic, libertine, liberal and imperial writer who brought Russian literature and the Russian language itself into the modern age and who died in a duel in 1837 at the age of 37 .
“For the past 200 years, in Russia, there have been not four, but five elements in nature, and the fifth was Pushkin.” Andre Markovichsaid the distinguished French translator of Pushkin.
From the tsars who expanded the Russian empire in the 19th century to Stalin who held public celebrations across the Soviet Union on the 100th anniversary of Pushkin’s death in 1937, every Russian leader embraced Pushkin according to his or her own political vision.Purge of Intellectuals – To President Vladimir V. Putin, who quoted Pushkin in speeches and speeches unveiling monument Him all over the world.
“Pushkin is a mirror of all times in Russia,” Markovich said.In today’s Ukraine, Pushkin has become Symbol of being insulted Since Russia’s brutal invasion, the influence of Russian imperialism and its people have fallen statue give him.
Prices for books published during the lifetimes of the holy trinity of Russian Romantic writers—Pushkin, Gogol, and Mikhail Lermontov—have risen sharply over the past 20 years, in line with the growth in the wealth of Russian collectors. Dealers say it’s a smaller market with relatively few books, and collectors usually have a list of books they want.
Pushkin died young, so “lifetime” Pushkin is rare. He published the poetic novel “Eugene Onegin” in serial form. The first edition, which included some chapters in its original packaging, sold for more than £467,000 ($581,000) At Christie’s 2019 Auction.
Western sanctions imposed after Russia invaded Ukraine banned Western dealers from selling books to Russian residents, fueling an existing shadow market in rare books. In this market, sales tend to be conducted privately through middlemen, and cash transactions are difficult to trace, dealers said. Libraries are easy targets for thieves because they serve the public; they are often underfunded and do not receive the same protections as museums and other institutions that hold valuable works.
“It is easy to acquire books, it is easy to know which books to buy and what they are worth,” Pierre-Yves Guillemet, London dealer Specializing in Russian rare books, said.
Guilleme and other dealers say Russian books stolen from European libraries are unlikely to show up at official auctions in the West.this International Federation of Antiquarian BooksellersA trade group has listed a number of recent library thefts on its register of missing books.
Angus O’Neill, the organization’s vice president and security chairman, said the organization had been in regular contact with Europol to inform its members of the thefts. “Booksellers please be careful!” This Berlin State Library Writing in the register of missing books, five Russian books were listed as missing, with a total value of only six figures.
Absorbing so many stolen books into the relatively small Russian book market could be difficult. But Guilleme said these are Russia’s most famous books, appealing not only to experienced collectors but also to “rich people who want trophies.”
Europol said some of the stolen books had been sold by auction houses in Moscow and St. Petersburg, “effectively rendering them irrecoverable”. The agency did not disclose which books, saying the investigation was ongoing.
Dealers say it is not uncommon for Russian books to be sold with library stamps. The Soviets looted private household collections and nationalized libraries. During World War II, libraries were burned down, the Soviets took books from Germany, and the Nazis took books from Russia. When the Soviet Union collapsed, impoverished librarians sometimes secretly sold library books to make ends meet.
In the 20th century, Russian books flowed to the West as immigrants sold their collections. In the 21st century, they flowed eastward, and a new generation of Russians bought them back. In 2018, Christie’s auction house auctioned one of the largest private collections of Russian books in the West, owned by Chicago attorney R. Eden Martin. total Over $2.2 million.
Recent thefts have caused heightened alarm. “It’s deeply disturbing whenever a theft like this occurs,” said Susan Bennie, executive director of the American Antiquarian Booksellers Association. “It’s the library’s job to provide access to scholars and the public, and when this happens In the event of a breach of trust, necessary security changes may restrict this access.”
The thefts appear to have caused the strongest public outrage in Poland, which is extremely sensitive to real and perceived Russian aggression. Last October, the Library of the University of Warsaw (formerly the Russian Imperial University) received a large collection of books. 19th century Russian books, 78 missing Russian rare books were discovered, including Pushkin’s first edition. A spokesman for the university said the thefts likely began in the fall of 2022 and continued until they were discovered 10 months later.
As authorities across Europe begin arresting suspects — all so far Georgian nationals — a picture of a possible network is emerging.One of the men suspected of theft Vilnius University LibraryLost 17 books worth 440,000 euros ($470,000) and is currently serving a sentence in a Lithuanian prison. He was also suspected in library robberies elsewhere, according to case files reviewed by The Times.In Estonia, a man was convicted TOLL In connection with the robbery in Tartu.He was extradited there from Latvia, where he was serving a sentence for helping to steal three books from the Latvian National Library in Riga – one by Pushkin and two by the Russian Futurist poet Alexei KruchnykhAs it happened, he abandoned Pushkin and sought a new poetic language.
In November last year, French police arrested three people on suspicion of conspiring to steal 12 Russian books from a Paris university library, the Paris prosecutor’s office said. Authorities are said to have linked the suspect to another theft that occurred last July at a prestigious public university library in Lyon. The identities of the men were also discovered at the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris, according to case files seen by The Times.
Today, asking for an early 19th-century edition of Pushkin in the Rare Book Room of the National Library of France elicits nervous looks from librarians and a quick request for more information about the reader’s motivations. Last year, thieves stole eight books by Pushkin and one by Lermontov, worth an estimated €650,000 ($696,500) in total, one of the biggest thefts from a modern library.
The pattern is the same. A man showed up over the course of several months to consult rare Russian books. When the librarian asked about the nature of his research, he claimed not to speak French or English. The librarian was skeptical, but eventually allowed him in. The man allegedly stole the books, possibly hiding them on his bandaged arm. He replaced them with high-quality copies so that librarians went undetected for months.
The library now houses books from the Russian Golden Age as well as the most rare books, including a Gutenberg Bible, in its most sacred place.
