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Map Thief Is One of Scotland Yard’s Most WantedBritish police are looking for a former gardener wanted in connection with the theft of thousands of valuable maps and illustrations from libraries across Europe. Peter Bellwood, from Swillington in northern England, was identified as the man who was caught on a security camera in Copenhagen’s Royal Library in 2001 cutting maps from 16th- and 17th-century atlases. According to the May 19 London Guardian, the camera images were circulated widely on the Internet and alerted officials at the National Library of Wales that a similar-looking man had been in their reading rooms, which are missing maps worth around £100,000 (U.S. $163,500).Bellwood was sentenced to prison in 1996 for stealing hundreds of prints valued up to £289,000 (U.S. $473,000) from 12 British libraries but was released in 1999. Scotland Yard, which estimates that as many as 4,500 maps are missing from libraries across Europe, has labeled him Britain’s most-wanted art thief. Police searching for the items at the Welsh National Library in Aberystwyth had already convicted Neil Winstanley, a paper conservator at the Middle Temple Law Library in London, who was caught with stolen books in his home. However, there is no evidence linking him to Bellwood. Posted May 26, 2003. |
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