Arrests have been made in one of the largest book thefts in recent memory - an estimated $8 million-plus worth of books taken from the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. This was not a single heist but an ongoing flow that took place over two decades. As is often the case in such a large and long-running event, it was an inside job. On the inside was Greg Priore, who had been the library's archivist and head of the rare book room since 1992. Mr. Priore has been charged with theft, receiving stolen property, conspiracy, retail theft, library theft, criminal mischief and forgery. According to th...
In San Diego the annual comic book orgy, Comic-Con, recently concluded and continued again as a mega-event as evidenced by the reports of attendance, the local, regional, and national news coverage...
God forgive, I recently broke my own first commandment of book collecting: Thou shalt not buy a book but for its contents! Well, I did—worse, I bought a book for... its endpapers! It is not my enti...
Recently the original map of Winnie-the-Pooh’s Hundred Acre Wood by E. H. Shepard was sold for $570,137 [BP 430,000]. Created in 1924, It was sold 49 years ago by Sotheby’s in London for BP650 and...
AbeBooks has prepared their latest quarterly report of the most expensive sales on their book listing site during the past quarter, April-June. The shift to more European material at the top end th...
The efficient way to buy old books is when they are being liquidated at unreserved auction. Better yet, buy them at a bankruptcy sale. Such sales do not occur often but when they do the prices ca...
I guess we all have streak of the armchair traveler in us, and I’m no different. When I lived on the Mainland I got my needed doses of books, book shops and book sellers in the old fashioned way, I...
Researchers at the University of Southern Denmark's library made a startling discovery recently about three of their 16th and 17th century books. Their covers are filled with poison. To be exact, t...
On Thursday 26 July, important material by Malcolm X was up for sale at Guernsey’s Auctions in New York and failed to deliver on its promise of high, even exceptional outcomes. Malcolm would cert...
Over 25 years ago, police made an arrest in a case of 200-300 books stolen from Stanford University. On April 25, 1992, Stephen Blake Crawford was arrested on charges of stealing books, photographs...
Marvin Getman, organizer of the Brooklyn Antiquarian Book Fair, has issued the schedule of talks and special events to be held during his third annual New York event that kicks off the fall rare bo...
One of the more surprising book thefts has reportedly occurred at the P. K. Kelkar Library at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, India. It is not the most valuable library heist ever. St...
Usually, most catalogues we receive are subject-specific. This month, we find mostly varieties, miscellanies, or whatever one wants to call catalogues that have a little of everything. There are st...
