Sender: Rare book and manuscripts <EXLIBRIS-L@LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU>
The following story appeared today in the Hartford Courant. --ECW
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Book Theft Caught On Tape
Toronto Pair Accused Of Stealing Antiques
By KIM MARTINEAU
Courant Staff Writer
December 11 2006
Diana Phelps-Wyant was determined to catch her thief.
Days after outfitting her Westport art store with security cameras, a
sharply dressed woman was caught on tape sneaking rare books into her
lizard-skin purse. During their investigation, Westport police contacted
investigators in Toronto, and now the woman, Nora Thomson, 47, and her
partner, Peter Mason King, 48, are facing criminal charges in two countries
in what authorities say was a cross-border larceny scheme involving at least
$65,000.
The Canadian couple was arrested in Toronto in October after selling antique
books lifted from The Avenue Ltd. in Westport to an established bookseller
in Toronto, D & E Lake Ltd., according to police. Investigators also
uncovered evidence that the duo also had been stealing from the Toronto
dealer and pawning off the items at irresistible prices back to Phelps-Wyant
in Westport, police said.
News of the couple's arrest has rippled through the antiques trade, still
reeling from the conviction of E. Forbes Smiley III, who unloaded nearly $2
million in ancient stolen maps on unsuspecting dealers. The Canadian couple
visited at least one other antiques store in Connecticut, raising questions
about the extent of their travels. Toronto police continue to investigate,
and the FBI says it's reviewing the matter.
The couple presented themselves to buyers as interior decorators with
inventory to spare. They showed up last spring at the Old Print Shop in New
York City, botanical prints in tow. The store's owner, Harry Newman, a
specialist in rare maps, suggested the couple try a friend, Phelps-Wyant,
who deals mainly in decorative prints.
Phelps-Wyant, dressed in a kimono-style shirt with tortoise-rim glasses,
stopped to chat on a recent morning at her store in downtown Westport. From
stacks of drawers, she produced prints of birds and plants, shellfish and
English castles, some browned around the edges.
"Someone sat there in the 17th century and engraved that in a copper plate,"
she said, pointing to a print with a repeating motif of coiled seashells.
"The American Revolution hadn't started. There was no electricity."
The pictures are clipped from musty 16th and 17th century reference books,
filled with drawings of oysters, penguins, English gardens, family trees for
European aristocracy and so on. She sells the prints to homeowners looking
for unusual art to brighten their living room walls. A bit player in the
trade, her most expensive print rarely exceeds $6,000.
Phelps-Wyant said the Toronto couple walked into her warmly-lit shop earlier
this year carrying an art portfolio. They shook the prints out on a table,
and Phelps-Wyant bought a few. By the time the couple left, Phelps-Wyant had
given them a list of items she was looking to buy. Only one thing bothered
her: the way the man, identified as King, kept calling her "princess." In
all other respects, she says, she found them polite and charming.
The couple returned several times, but Phelps-Wyant said she didn't suspect
a thing, even after discovering that something had vanished: a 1600s "fete"
book celebrating Louis XIV, the Sun King. "I tore this place upside down not
once but three times," she recalled.
She reported the theft to police, whose headquarters are in view of her
store. They took the complaint but urged her to install cameras. In
September she put in a $3,000 surveillance system, and nine days later, on
Columbus Day, the couple returned.
Recently, she replayed the video. In the rear of the store, King appears to
distract Phelps-Wyant and her assistant while Thomson slides a book off the
front table into her purse, the tape shows. Later, a second book is whisked
from the floor into the same bag.
Thomson then walks out the door, explaining she wants to check the hours of
a neighboring store, Phelps-Wyant recalls. Thomson returns a few minutes
later, but soon thereafter the couple strolls out the door, sunglasses
snapped over their eyes.
After replaying the tape, Phelps-Wyant called 911. Within a day, Westport
police had tracked the couple to Toronto. There, police made their arrest
after the couple sold some books off to the owner of D & E. Lake Ltd.,
Donald Lake.
Phelps-Wyant says two of the books belonged to her: a book of bird
illustrations by the French engraver Francois Nicolas Martinet, and drawings
of tigers and lions in a book by the French naturalist, George-Louis
Leclerc, Comte de Buffon. All together, she says about $60,000 in prints
were stolen; some remain at large. Lake has posted a list of his missing
items on the website of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America
but declined to comment.
The Westport police called the couple at their home in suburban Toronto with
an invitation: "We asked them to come back down to talk to us," said Lt.
Dale Call. They declined, prompting Westport to issue a warrant for their
arrest. The couple did not return a message left at their home Friday.
Where else did their travels take them? Barbara Evans, owner of Evans & Co.
Antiques in New Canaan, said the couple stopped in with prints for sale but
that she took a pass.
The case has brought bitter flashbacks to Newman, whose referral led to the
couple's undoing. The New York map dealer lost nearly $426,000 through his
dealings with Smiley. "I'm tired of thieves," he said emphatically. "I've
had enough of them."