The following article appeared recently in the Hartford Courant. --ECW
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Libraries Suspect More Maps Taken
Yale University and other prominent institutions fear federal authorities
may not have been thorough enough in their investigation of map dealer E.
Forbes Smiley III.
By KIM MARTINEAU
Courant Staff Writer
July 30 2006
There is growing doubt among the elite libraries hit by E. Forbes Smiley
III, the Martha's Vineyard map thief, that the FBI was thorough in its
investigation.
The British Library, Yale and now Harvard are reporting more maps missing
from their collections than those the map dealer has admitted to taking. The
most valuable fall within Smiley's area of interest - early maps of North
America - and several are copies of maps Smiley has already admitted
stealing. The British Library suspects Smiley of taking three additional
maps and has hired a high-powered Philadelphia lawyer to push its case.
Privately, Yale and Harvard have also expressed concern.
"We continue to entertain serious doubts about the completeness of the
investigation and the extent of Mr. Smiley's cooperation with the
authorities," Clive Field, director of scholarship and collections at the
British Library, recently wrote the FBI. "We note that he has admitted to
stealing only one map from our collections but are not persuaded that this
exhausts the limits of Mr. Smiley's involvement in our thefts."
Harvard released the names of five additional maps missing from its
collection Friday, following the lead of Yale and the British Library in
making its thefts public. The lost maps will undoubtedly be discussed when
librarians meet in New Haven on Aug. 7 in a closed-door conference with the
FBI to sort out loose ends before sentencing. Smiley faces up to six years
in prison when sentenced in September but the judge could impose more jail
time if proof emerges that he stole more than the nearly hundred maps he has
already confessed to taking.
Poor record keeping by the libraries limited the FBI's investigation.
Investigators faced further challenges tracing maps, printed in multiple
copies, back to a single owner. Without Smiley's help, investigators have
said, they would have recovered a fifth of the maps they did. Smiley's
lawyer, Richard Reeve, insists his client told the FBI everything and
worries that the libraries have found a scapegoat to pin their additional
thefts on. "Either the maps have legs themselves or there are other people
taking maps," he said.
The feds have defended their work and invited the libraries to produce
additional evidence. "If they're uncovering more information, we'll be more
than happy to take a look," said Tom Carson, a spokesman for Connecticut's
U.S. attorney.
The evidence pointing to Smiley is circumstantial at best. Copies of seven
maps Yale found missing from Sterling Memorial Library appear on Smiley's
website, including a 1776 map of Boston under British siege that Smiley says
he sold for $110,000. Though the copies Smiley handled are extremely rare,
the FBI apparently found no proof they were stolen from Yale.
The British Library and Harvard can prove Smiley looked at all the rare
books in which maps have been found stolen. The problem lies in proving the
maps were there when Smiley pulled the books.
Since Smiley's arrest, copies of two maps missing from the British Library
have turned up and the library is trying to establish that the maps are
theirs.
A London map dealer, Philip Burden, bought one copy from Smiley: the rare
first edition of Sir William Alexander's 1624 map of New England and Canada.
After the British Library publicized its missing Alexander map, Burden
bought his copy back from a client and turned it over to the library.
A map collector and cardiologist from Maine, Dr. Harold Osher, bought a
different map from Smiley: a 1578 map from George Best's travel accounts, "A
True Discourse of the Late Voyages of Martin Frobisher." After inspecting
Osher's copy, the British Library shipped the Best map to Maine with the
proviso it be returned if further evidence emerged.
On Friday, Harvard announced that it, too, is missing a Best map from a book
Smiley handled. Best was a British explorer who described Capt. Martin
Frobisher's voyage along the Canadian coast in search of a trade route to
the Pacific. He inserted two maps into his book. The British Library's
missing copy is a crude woodcut map of the world while Harvard's missing
copy, "Frobisshers Streights," shows a smaller geographic area.
The only Best map Smiley has admitted stealing came from the New York Public
Library, which has refused to discuss the FBI investigation.
The most valuable map stolen from Harvard is a 1612 engraving of New England
and Canada drawn by French explorer Samuel de Champlain. The map shows the
succession of Great Lakes and is decorated with illustrations of Native
Americans and the fruit and nuts the French encountered. The map is worth
more than $120,000. The only 1612 Champlain map Smiley has confessed to
stealing again came from New York Public.
Harvard is also missing a later version of Alexander's map of New England
and Canada tucked inside Samuel Purchas' English travel account, "Purchas
his Pilgrims" published in 1625. The British Library has also reported its
copy missing.
The British Library's suspicions about Smiley are so great they have hired a
former federal prosecutor, Robert Goldman in Philadelphia, to pursue its
missing maps. Before joining private practice this year, Goldman prosecuted
more than 30 art and culture thieves and helped recover items belonging to
Geronimo, George Washington, Patrick Henry and Andrew Jackson.
"They [The British Library] view themselves as being trustees of the
treasures that belong to the British public and are extremely interested in
recovering these objects," he said.
Harvard plans to post a public version of its list in the thefts section at:
www.maphistory.info. Yale's list can be found at:
www.library.yale.edu/MapColl/msgmaps.html.