Friday, July 26, 2013 - 
Anders Burius,maps and manuscripts,Swedish Royal Library
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Anders Burius,maps and manuscripts,Swedish Royal Library
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Royal Library of Sweden celebrates the return of two rare manuscripts stolen by Anders Burius and recovered by Baltimore-based book dealer Stephan Loewentheil
by A. M. C. Knutsson, ARCA Student 2013
On Wednesday the 24th of July,
the second return ceremony for books stolen from the Royal Library of Sweden
took place in the office of the New York District Attorney. Last year the Wytfliet Atlas was the
first to be returned to the Royal Library after it was identified in the possession
of a New York-based dealer who had purchased it in 2003 from Sotheby’s, who
reimbursed the dealer before returning it to the Library.
The two new returns are the ‘Das
illustrirte Mississippithal’ by Henry Lewis, which was the first book to be
discovered missing from the Royal Library and a 1683 French book by Louis Hennepin on
the Louisiana territory. A full
list of the books that remain missing can be found here.
Both of these books were purchased by Baltimore-based dealer Stephan
Loewentheil from Ketterer Kunst, a German auction house where many of the
stolen books had been sold. Learning about the thefts, Loewentheil, who in turn
had sold the books, bought them back and returned them to the Royal Library at
his own expense. Loewentheil explained his actions in the following words, "Although
as a bona fide purchaser, I didn't have any legal liability, from a moral
standpoint it bothered me.”
The head librarian and CEO of the Royal
Library, Gunilla Herdenberg commented on the return, saying that the return
means a lot to the Library as well as the Swedish cultural heritage. It is
important, she asserts, to show that these types of thefts can be resolved.
The thefts from the Royal Library took place between 1995 and 2004. They were conducted by Anders Burius, the head of
the Manuscript Department, who at discovery committed suicide. More than 50
books remain missing, but it is believed that the increased publicity with the
return of the resurfaced books in conjunction with further effort at
identification both by the Library and the FBI might prove fruitful.
The
juridical representative of the Royal Library has ensured that the Library is
constantly working to localize the missing books. The economic value is
irrelevant when it comes to the damage conducted to the Library and the
cultural heritage of Sweden. These
books are intended for the enlightenment of mankind and the return of the books
is the only right thing to do from an ethical standpoint.
Steven D. Feldman,
from Herrick, Feinstein LLP, representing the Royal Library stated, “Stephan
Loewentheil’s decision to return these two cultural treasures to the Royal
Library of Sweden should serve as an example for ethical book dealers and
collectors in the United States and around the world. As Mr. Loewentheil
demonstrated, these stolen books should be returned to the people of Sweden and
the Royal Library, their true owner, and made available to the public.
They should not be secreted away in private collections.”
In the words of Stephan Loewentheil, “Our
clients love books and people who love books tend to want to do the right
thing, so they were happy to sell the books back to me.”
Anyone who holds any information regarding
the missing books (a complete list is available at www.wytflietatlas.com) is encouraged to contact Jerker Rydén at the
Royal Library of Sweden.
For more information:
