The court date came exactly one month after E. Forbes Smiley III, 49, was arrested on the Yale campus. A Beinecke Library worker called campus police after discovering a knife on the library floor during Smiley’s visit. A Yale police officer found in Smiley’s possession seven rare maps whose total estimated value was more than $700,000; library staff members identified three as belonging to the Yale collection, including a 1614 map by Captain John Smith believed to be one of the earliest accurate maps of New England.
Smiley, whose website states that he amassed two map and atlas collections that are now housed at New York Public Library, is under investigation by the FBI regarding the provenance of the other maps, which are suspected to have come from other library collections, according to the July 12 Antiques and the Arts Weekly.
Posted July 15, 2005.