The Pushkin job: unmasking the thieves behind an international rare books heist
9 hours ago
- #cultural theft
- #international crime
- #rare books
- A series of thefts of rare Russian books, primarily by Alexander Pushkin and Nikolai Gogol, occurred across European libraries from 2022 to 2023.
- Thieves used fake identities and high-quality facsimiles to replace stolen books, avoiding detection in libraries with lax security for older collections.
- The stolen books, valued at over £2.5 million, included rare lifetime editions of Pushkin’s works, which are highly sought after by collectors.
- Georgian nationals, including Beqa Tsirekidze and Mikheil Zamtaradze, were identified as key suspects, operating in an organized but competitive manner.
- Investigations revealed connections to Russian collectors and auction houses, though no direct evidence of state involvement was found.
- The thefts coincided with heightened Russia-EU tensions post-Ukraine invasion, fueling speculation about cultural heritage repatriation.
- Despite arrests and trials, none of the stolen books have been recovered, highlighting challenges in international cooperation with Russia.