Thefts of Rare Maps Shatter The Small World of Collectors

By JAMES KINSELLA

To the modern eye, the maps are wildly out of whack.

Continents are bunched together or simply absent. California usually is in the wrong place. Major rivers wander off into mysterious voids.

But these maps, drawn up to 400 years ago, are literal touchstones in the evolution of human culture.

"It's who we are, and where we've been," said Nicholas Basbanes of Oak Bluffs, an author who's written about people passionate about rare manuscripts. "It's our history."

And it's the cultural significance of these centuries-old maps that makes the admitted theft of 97 of them by Chilmark resident Edward Forbes Smiley 3rd especially appalling to people who work with and care about maps and rare documents of this vintage.

"It's a real betrayal," said Peter Drummey, the Stephen T. Riley librarian at the Massachusetts Historical Society.

Mr. Smiley, who had been a highly esteemed dealer in antiquities, pleaded guilty last week in federal and state courts in New Haven, Conn., to stealing rare maps from Beinecke Library at Yale University.

According to a federal criminal information that detailed the charge to which Mr. Smiley pleaded guilty, he acknowledged taking 97 rare documents from seven major institutions: the Beinecke and the Sterling libraries at Yale; the New York Public Library rare books division; the Boston Public Library; Houghton Library at Harvard University; the Newberry Library in Chicago; and the British Museum in London.

The Smiley case began on June 8, 2005, after he entered the Beinecke Library and dropped an X-Acto knife on the floor. Yale police arrested him later that day after surveillance revealed that he was removing documents from the library.

Sentencing is slated for September in both courts.

And while the market value of the maps is considerable - Mr. Smiley's lawyer, Richard Reeve, placed their combined value at more than $3 million - people familiar with the field say their cultural significance could be even greater.

Mr. Basbanes views Mr. Smiley's actions as even more grievous than those of notorious book thief Stephen Blumberg, whose criminal career he detailed in a chapter of A Gentle Madness, a book published in 1995.

Mr. Blumberg stole 25,000 or so rare books from 368 institutions, amassing a collection whose worth Mr. Basbanes estimates at $20 million. When 17 agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation came to arrest Mr. Blumberg, they filled two tractor-trailers with his stolen books.

Mr. Blumberg may have stolen the books, but he never sold them. Further, he operated as a thief, acquiring locksmith skills to better steal what he wanted.

In contrast, Mr. Smiley went into the libraries and museums as a widely known and respected dealer in antiquities.

"Mr. Smiley gained the trust of these very trusting institutions," Mr. Basbanes said. "He bartered on that trust, and so totally abused that trust. Not only did he steal, but he desecrated the books, he gathered [the maps] up and he sold them.

"He takes out a goddamn X-Acto knife, he damages documents and he sells them on the open market," he said. "These are the world's greatest map institutions. This is a dream team of repositories. And he goes and violates them. It's really something."

Mr. Smiley hasn't just angered bibliophiles. He also has run afoul of a 1994 federal law specifically drafted to protect valuable cultural artifacts. The law, which is enforced by the FBI, is found in Title 18 United States Code Section 668.

Eric Ives, chief of the major theft unit at the FBI, said rare art and book thefts previously had been prosecuted under a catch-all federal theft statute that ranged from widgets to artistic masterpieces.

Following the still-unsolved $300 million theft of 13 pieces from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston - a case that the bureau recently reopened as an aggressive cold-case investigation - Congress passed a law specifically to protect such treasures.

Section 668 covers the theft of major cultural or historic pieces from libraries or educational institutions in the United States which have a professional staff and which exhibit to the public on a regular basis. It covers pieces more than 100 years old and worth more than $5,000, or worth more than $100,000, with no age criterion.

Mr. Smiley has put himself deep into Section 668. His acknowledged thefts include the following maps: Vninersi Orbis, Sev Terreni Glo, created in 1578, valued by the federal government at $150,000; a Map of New England, created in 1676, valued at $125,000; and A New and Correct Map of Connecticut, created in 1792, valued at $50,000.

As Mr. Ives sees it, the federal government created the law because people who engage in these thefts are "stealing from everybody. These things are irreplaceable. You can't put a value on it."

Mr. Drummey said maps of the vintage that Mr. Smiley targeted possess substantial cultural value.

"If you're interested in the early history of America, in the exploration and settlement of America, these maps are extremely important," he said.

Many of the early maps are extremely well-preserved, Mr. Drummey said, given the fine paper on which they were made and their position folded inside the books. Moreover, many of them are brilliantly hand-colored, with illustrated animals and ships sharing space with continents and oceans.

He said the maps also provide a valuable insight into the mindset of the past.

"It's extremely valuable [for] what it tells you about another time and place," Mr. Drummey said. "It tells you what someone would have known at the time. What did people know? What information did they have?"

Indeed, the cultural offense admitted by Mr. Smiley may loom larger than the monetary value in whatever sentences he may receive.

Jean Ashton, vice president and director of the library at the New-York Historical Society, and formerly director of the rare book and manuscript library at Columbia University, testified in the case of a thief named Daniel Spiegelman who had targeted the library. Later asked by probation officials for input on Mr. Spiegelman's sentencing, Ms. Ashton emphasized the cultural value of the materials.

The judge took note of her thoughts, and decided to sentence Mr. Spiegelman to a longer term than was specified by the sentencing guidelines.

Speaking of the rare books, maps and manuscripts kept at these institutions - antiquities often open to inspection by the public - Ms. Ashton said: "They're basically the record of the development of literate civilization."

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